I am yours
by LittleBitchesEverywhere
Summary: In everyone's point of view, Elizabeth has a perfect life: she lives alone with no parents to control over her, she can do whatever she wants to and she has a job. But no one wonders why is she living alone and why is she always moody. Except her best friend Debbie, who knows everything about Elizabeth's life and past. Summary sucks balls. Rated M for later chapters. Modern AU.
1. Introduction

It was the first day of the final school year. Beth and Deb were 12th graders, finally.  
"Hey, did you hear that we have a new Math teacher?" Debbie asked Elizabeth enthusiastically. "What? Why? Mr. Melbourne was great, why did he leave us?" Beth asked her best friend in surprise. "He was not great, but horrible. He was good to you only because you had a 100% on every test." Deb answered like she was disgusted by even mentioning his name.

They went into the classroom and Deb sat in the front row so she could hear all the news in the school from Emily, while Beth sat next to the windows. The remaining students in their class started coming in, filling in the empty seats. While staring out of the window at the trees and the sun that was hiding behind the clouds, she was half listening to other girls talking about the new teacher. They described him as a tall creature with a 'God-given' face. That word snapped her out and she slowly looked at the girl who said it with a 'WTF' expression on her face. Yes, only Jennifer can say something stupid like that. Soon after it rang, the door opened.  
Just in time, through the door walked in a man carrying one of those student bags over his shoulder. He really was tall, well, taller than Beth.

'Well, hello to you, too.' Beth thought, but then quickly shook off that thought. 'Stop that! There is nothing special about him. Maybe his eyes, yes. Who in the world has red eyes?' Beth discussed with herself inside her head.  
He put the bag on his table and with swift moves took out some papers. "Good morning." he cheerfully started. "As you already knew, I'm your substitute for Mr. Melbourne, Sebastian Michaelis. If someone wants to know what is wrong with him or why is he absent and such…", he said and had a little pause while looking at the students, "I have no idea." He smoothly finished his line and rolled his eyes. "No, seriously, everyone keeps asking me that. I'm tired of that and I don't want to hear it anymore. So… just don't."

When the teacher finished his little speech, Beth noticed some students looking at each other with those 'this guy is awesome' look and thought how he was more of a crazy guy. But it's not up to her to judge.  
One thing she noticed and that she liked was that he wore Converse shoes, black, the same as hers, only his were obviously larger.  
"Okay." He said and took some paper in his hands. "Marty Walker?" he called one student's name. "Here." A deep voice answered from the back of the classroom.  
"Please stand up, Marty." When he did, teacher continued with his interrogation. "So, Marty… you come here often?" he asked and the classroom soon became filled with laughter. Marty, who was probably one of those problematic kids and most likely a stupid one, shrugged his shoulders and said:"Not really. I ditch some classes." Once again, the class started laughing while the teacher smiled and slowly nodded his head. "Thank you, Marty. You may sit down." He said and went on to the next student, but kept asking random questions.  
Beth was the last one on the list.  
"Elizabeth Brant." She was surprised with the way he said her name. So smooth yet so… sharp. Only a few people said it in that way, only few. As she was getting up, the chair she was sitting on screeched loudly against the floor. Since she hadn't had a lot of space between her and a boy's table who sat behind her, she pushed his table with the chair. Brian, the boy's name, was leaning in his chair and a sudden push from his table made him lost his balance. "H-hey!" he shouted while desperately trying to catch onto something, but ended up falling down, knocking down a billboard from the wall. "Oow…" Brian moaned from the floor while everyone were watching at him and Beth. She awkwardly turned to the teacher and nodded her head as if she was saying 'yes, this is who I am'.  
"Elizabeth Brant, everyone. Thank you Elizabeth, you may sit down." He joked and finished with her without asking her anything, clearly showing the little 'presentation' of hers was enough.  
'Why me?' Beth thought. She was the clumsy type of a person and incidents like this struck her in public, most of the time.  
"Now, please prepare your pens or something to write with because you'll be writing a test." The teacher suddenly said while taking the papers from his table. For only a second, there was a complete silence in class, when someone loudly asked "What?".  
"Well, how else am I going to check your knowledge of math?" he innocently asked and looked at his students. "But-… It's the…", "Sorry, no objections." His 'innocent' face quickly turned to the neutral one in a moment. "You have 20 minutes. When you're done, give it to me and then you're free to go."

Beth almost smiled at the easiness of the test. It contained materials from the past 3 years and they were the basic ones. As smart as she was when it came to math, she wrote it in few minutes, handed the test and went out, followed by many surprised looks from her classmates.

* * *

Yeah, this is some kind of prologue. Keep reading. Or don't. Your choice.


	2. Just small things

When Beth came home, she really felt like doing nothing, although her due to send her project was in two days. "If I leave it for tomorrow, I will regret it because I won't do it even then… Hmh…" ' Come on, you lazy fat ass. You have to be responsible, you're 20 after all.' "I don't wanna." 'But you have to.' "It's hard to think." 'Oh, and the money's gonna fall from the sky, eh?' "I really hate myself… And if this goes on, I'll be ready for a mental hospital." Beth talked to herself like that every day. Every day she had to work. Term 'summer holidays' didn't exist in her vocabulary. She was grateful as much as she was lazy for having a job at all. If it wasn't for Deb's parents, God knows where she'd be, in which part of the streets. So, after eating and showering, her fingers were taping on her laptop, waiting orders from her brain what to type.

"Hey, Beth." Beth heard Deb calling for her and she raised her head from the warm nest she made with her arms. Deb's expression went from happy to shocked in a second after looking at her best friend's face. "What… happened to you?" Deb asked, still staring at Beth. "Wha? Why? Is there something in my hair?" she started fixing her hair, but stopped after she remembered the bags under her eyes. "Oh… that. It's nothing, I was just working last night and the night before that and the night before that one, too, that's all." , "Maybe you should give it a rest, you know? Day or two… a whole week.", "Oh, sure, sure, maybe." , "Anyway", Deb continued, "what do you say about pizza today?" her mood was all cheerful again. "Uuuhm, sorry, no can do. I'm thinking about sleeping 'till tomorrow when I get home. Sorry. ", "Well, never mind then.", "Why don't you go with Amy?", "Yes, we were planning, counting you, but we'll go together next time.", "Right, right, have fun.", "And you get some rest.", "If you leave me alone, maybe I will."

It didn't pass 5 minutes when it rang and professor came right on time. "Do you know I wait outside the classroom for bell to ring? Just so I can come in a second after ringing?" Everyone went quiet and stared at him with a worrying faces on. "Relax, I'm just joking. You can laugh, too." He said with a big, happy grin which soon enough became a straight line. "Yes, you can laugh. At your own results, 'cause I've been laughing the whole night. Marco, would you, please?" he asked a student to share the tests. Beth got 86%. "Psst, Beth." Beth heard Brian calling for her. "Yes?" she asked when turned to him. He had the pretty same face as Deb earlier. "Uhm… what did you got?", "86.", "May I see?" Just as he saw the score, he frowned. "What are you talking about? You got 96%. Here, I don't even…" Beth just grabbed her test before Brian started with his lectures and turned back again. When she looked through it more carefully, it did write 96. She's an idiot.

Did Beth rest when she came home? Yes. Did she eat? No. Did that thing with working lasted the whole month? Yes. Maybe two? Definitely. How did Beth look like? Like a skeleton.

"Beth? Beth?" Deb called for her while waving in front of her face. "Huh? What?" Beth snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Deb and then at Emily and Amy. They were all staring at her. "I asked you why aren't you eating.", "Oh, sorry, I was just… never mind. I'm not hungry anymore.", "But you didn't eat even a half from your plate." Emily added. "It's yucky. I don't like it."Beth replied, making a grimace. "Can I have some, then?" Amy asked, already pulling the plate towards her. "Sure, by all means." While the girls started talking about boys or something irrelevant, Beth was thinking about her new work and took a sketchbook out of her bag. With a steady hands, she neatly drew a rectangle over the page and sketches that the program supposed to contain and on the other page how to make a working program inside that program. "Whoa, is that for an art class?" Amy asked surprised by Beth's art. "What? Haha, no, it's just something of mine, nothing important.", "All that I can say is that it's really pretty. Keep going.", "Thank you." When Amy and Emily left the table, Deb asked for Beth's attention. "Beth, do you mind if I ask you something?", "No, shoot.", "Do you always eat like that?", "Huh? Like what?" Beth raised a look from her sketch. "This little. How much do you weigh?", "Don't know." Beth dedicated to her work again. "Find out.", "Don't wanna.", "Beth, please, I'm worried about your health. You look like a prune.", "Well, isn't that a nice compliment to hear from a best friend?" Beth sarcastically said. "You won't be hearing that only from me. Em and Amy said the same. Is there something bothering you?", "Well, except you…" Beth stopped for a moment and received a hit from Deb, "my period is late, that's all.", "What do you mean, 'that's all'? Beth, get serious, it may be some difficulties, you should better go visit your doctor.", "I will, I will, don't worry.", "You're 20 and you act like 15.", "It's not that much of a difference, right?" Deb was quiet for a while, watching Beth drawing and then continued. "Why are you holding the paper so close to your eyes? Is your sight well? Look at me." Deb said in a serious tone and Beth actually listened to her this time. "Please look at that pin board over there." She said and pointed at the board which was 3 meters away from their table. "Now would you please read out loud the biggest title at the top?" Beth looked at it for 10 seconds straight and started reading:"What wald you do… if you be cough a place man far a way?" Beth said and leaned in her chair with a small smile on her lips. Deb looked at her with a terrified look on her face. "Now please tell me you're joking.", "Why? What's wrong?" She asked with a frown. "Does it really sound grammatically correct to you?", "I don't give a fuck.", "Beth, it says 'What would you do if you become a policeman for a day?' Visit a ophthalmologist, too. Please.", "Yes, mom." Beth said in a serious tone while nodding her head in agreement. "Now, let's go, we have biology in 5 minutes." Beth grabbed her bag, stood up and on her first step bumped into someone. "Watch it." she said, looking up. "No, you watch it, slut." Some big guy said, overtopping Beth. "So, will you move or what?" Beth asked, dead-serious, looking straight into his eyes. "No can do." He replied, not moving an inch. Beth sighed and rolled her eyes, trying to bypass him, but the jerk moved, blocking her way. "Is that something important you're holding?" he asked, looking at her sketchbook. Well, more at her cleavage than the sketchbook. "Yes, it's worthier than your life." She continued her glaring. "Then it would be a shame if someone ripped it apart.", "You have no idea." "Beth… stop it. Let's go. Don't get into another trouble." Beth heard Deb behind her, but ignored her. Slowly, the guy moved his hand and grabbed the paper from on which the first sketch was and looked at it confused. "The hell is this? I don't understand a word." He said with the most stupid face on. "Well, I'm surprised you can even read." Beth said and smoothly slid between him and the chair, with Deb following her. "Here." She heard the guy's voice and saw him handing her the paper. Beth gently took it and after studying through it while walking. When she noticed she made a mistake from the beginning, she crumpled it and threw in a bin.  
"What was that all about?" Deb asked her, clearly upset from the previous event. "I don't know, he was just there and… we bumped and that's it.", "He could have hit you.", "Oh, please, shut up."

* * *

Some events from here are kind of important for the future, so, no bad feelings.


	3. Small talks

„Oh, fuck me…" Beth simply said after realizing how dirty her apartment was. Dirty clothes, plates, glasses, cups, crumbles, books and god knows what else has been there. Maybe even a litter of spiders, somewhere. To prevent that catastrophe, Beth picked all of the laundry and carried it to the basement, where the building's washing machines were. There were 6 of them, 3 were occupied and Beth needed two. Well, there's still one for someone. After she left it wash, she went back to her apartment and continued cleaning. What didn't fit into the dishwasher, Beth washed on hands. And for vacuuming… it took some time. She even had to scrub her carpet because there was a huge stain from Nutella when a slice of bread turned over. It was a sad day for everyone.

Anyway, two hours have passed and the laundry was done. Beth neatly folded it in the basket. On her way out, she was hurrying and she bumped into a neighbor, probably, and half of her clothes fell out of the basket. "Shit… sorry. This happens to me a lot today.", "No, it's my fault, sorry." Beth recognized a male voice that she hears every Monday and Thursday. After picking the laundry from the floor, she slowly straighten up herself and looked at the face of her current Math teacher. "Elizabeth?" Sebastian spoke first with the same expression as Beth's. "What in the world…?" Beth continued. "I live here." They both said in unison and started laughing. "So you're the one who occupied two washing machines?" he broke the silence first. "Well, yeah… But I left one.", "Nonsense, who uses only one washing machine?" Beth laughed a bit and greeted him. "See you later.", "Sure."

"I can't live with this. Deb was right, I do need glasses." Beth seriously thought of the future of her sight. When she observed the situation, everything was blurry, an inch of space shared the place where the paper and Beth's nose would met and she bumped into almost every thing in her home. So, one Saturday she decided to visit an ophthalmologist and after him, her gynecologist. Since everything in America was so quickly done, her glasses were ready to pick in two days. They were small, rectangular and with black frame. She had to wear them not only for reading, but the whole day. Except for showering and sleeping. Now she looked like a… hmph. Beth couldn't quite describe herself.

"Beth, you look amazing!" But that's why there was Deb who could. "One sexy student.", "God, Deb, please shut the hell up." Beth had to listen to Deb's 'compliments' the whole next day. "It's like, you can easily seduce someone like that. OR! You can pretend you're a teacher and then…" Beth had to put a hand over Deb's mouth just so she doesn't listen to her babbling. "Deb, you can lick my palm all you want, that's not working on me. I'll let you go if you promise you'll shut up." After Deb nodded her head, she slowly put her hand away. "...and then you can have sexy adventures!" Deb quickly finished her previous sentence and ran into her classroom, leaving Beth in the hallway. "I swear to God, someday…"Beth sighed and continued her way to her classroom.

Over the weekend, Beth got an e-mail from the company she was working for. It was a new project she had to make. As far as she knew, the only thing she had to make was a program, but that program is the main program that makes other programs work as well. Too complicated to understand? Yes. Too complicated to make? No. Thanks to Beth's annoyingness while she was younger, her mom showed her how all that thing with technology is working. Yes, Beth was quite a pest when she was younger, but her mom always had time to spare for her. She wouldn't get mad at her almost never and that was why she was the best mom ever. Hey, it rhymes.

Anyway, due to send the project was in a week, so she didn't have to hurry. But in the same time she wanted to because there was a lot of upcoming tests she had to study for. Six more months to go and then… What will happen after she graduates? She will probably continue to live her miserable, lonely life as a computer programmer. Maybe she should get a cat or something? Yeah, right. She can barely take care of herself. The poor creature would look pretty much the same as her owner, flesh and bones.  
Ringing of the doorbell interrupted her thoughts. 'Who the fuck visits this late? I mean, it's 9 o'clock.' "Trick-or-treats!" was what Beth heard when she opened the door. In front of her were two boys, one dressed as Jason from Friday the 13th while the other one as Chucky. Beth just stared at them. "Uh… lady? Are you gonna give us something?" She remained quiet. The situation got a little tense to the boys as she was glaring at them, it could even be cut through with a knife. Just as Beth was going to tell them she doesn't have anything, a light bulb in the hall where she was standing suddenly broke and the boys screamed and ran away. Beth just put a hand over her chest because it startled her a little and those boys didn't help with their screams. Really, what cowards.

The worst thing of all was that Beth totally forgot it was Halloween. And now that those boys said 'treats', pictures of chocolates and cookies wouldn't leave Beth's mind. The other dilemma was that she really didn't have anything sweet at home. Now she had to sacrifice her strength for working into walking to the store. Dick balls.  
Before she went to the store, she wanted to comb her hair, but when she saw herself in the mirror, everything was clear to her. Big, black bags under her eyes could be seen from a plane, black hair so tangled that an eagle could make a nest there, dirty T-shirt from chocolate, mayonnaise, pepperoni and cheese looked like a tablecloth after some food fight. There was even a line from ketchup on her cheek. No wonder those boys felt uncomfortable. And ran away. And screamed.

"I heard you scare little children." Beth heard a voice behind her and turned around. In the entrance of the building, in front of the mailboxes, Beth was checking her mail when the voice of her neighbor and professor interrupted her. "Oh… What do you mean?" she asked, frowning a little, but got a flashy smile from Sebastian. "Don't worry about it, just some kids with a wild imagination.", "You mean those two brats?" Beth asked, crossing her arms and leaning on a wall. "Mhm.", "Oh, God, what did they say?", "Something about a lunatic living here and I immediately thought of you.", "Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny." Beth said in indifferent voice and started climbing the stairs, with Sebastian following her. "Come on, you never heard of a thing called joke?" he asked with a smile on his lips. "No, is it something to eat?", "No.", "Do you summon Satan with it?", "I think not.", "Then what is it? Please, do tell me.", "Some other time, here's my stop." He said while walking to the door of his apartment. "Oh, really, neighbor?" Beth asked, while unlocking her own door. Before Sebastian could answer, Beth closed her door, leaving him watching at the 3 meter distance from their doorsteps.

* * *

And here I needed to put a little of Sebas-chan, couldn't think of anything else.


	4. Girls just wanna have fun?

„What in the world…?" Beth stared at the mail she got from the bank. It said that with the 1st of December, 3 billion dollars were transferred to her bill. She decided to check it. After logging on her BNY Mellon account, Beth still couldn't believe it. How? Why? It sure was a shock. Where from? "What the actual fuck?"

"No, madam, we certainly did not make a mistake." A lady that worked at the financial department was reassuring Beth, who had to hear it with her ears, that those 3 billion dollars were on her bill, safe and sound. "Well, then will you care to explain from where in the world did that transferred?", "Wasn't it written in the mail?", "If it was, I wouldn't be here bothering you." Beth was slightly losing her nerves to talk with that woman. "God damn it, Mike." Claire, if Beth read the name right on the lady's shirt, murmured the words and rolled her eyes, while Beth 'patiently' waited for her to continue. "Let's start from the beginning. Since this bank was created, many people entrusted their hard-made money to us. In the past 65 years, not a single robbery escaped through those doors. We keep the money with a…" Beth wanted to explode. Maybe, if the young blonde in the short skirt in front of her didn't say those words with an obvious boredom, almost sighing, while chewing gum with opened mouth, just maybe, she would have a little bit of understanding for the creature. She was probably hired with legs high in the air. "Excuse me." Beth stopped her in the mid-talk. "I'm sorry for interruption, but can we please skip to the 'main' part? Please." The blonde gave her a sour smile as she rolled her hair between her fingers. "Of course." Now she had to drink water and cough up a little. 'Calm the fuck down, Beth. You can do this, calm down.' Beth repeated in herself while deeply breathing. "Anyway, on 1st December 2011, the bank got the report to disable the account of the Brant family because they tragically died in an accident. But before any of that happened, they declared from the bank that the money gets transferred to yours after the last of them dies, exactly 2 years after the time of death. And so, 3 billion dollars got to your account. You can do absolutely everything you want to with them. Congratulations." The blonde finished with a heavy sigh. 

* * *

"In short, you are rich.", "Yes.", "I mean, richer than you were before.", "Yes.", "You can spend it on everything you want.", "No.", "Why?", "Because.", "Because why?", "Because fuck you.", "Aw, Beth, come on, buy me a building." Deb bothered Beth the whole time after she found out the news. "Debbie, you must not tell anyone of this, got it?" Beth told her in a death-serious tone. Well, that was her daily tone, but this one was more of a serious one. "Sure thing. If you buy me a building.", "You do not need a whole building for yourself.", "You know my name, not my story.", "Anyway, go to your class. We'll meet at the lunch."

"Well, hello Elizabeth." Emily and Amy greeted Beth in unison and sat down the table together with Deb and Beth. "You fucking told them." Beth said to Deb after putting her sandwich down, right before biting it. "No, I didn't, I swear." Beth looked from Deb to Amy and to Emily, who gave her wide smiles. "I don't know what are you two talking about, but we have a favor to ask you." Emily said as they sat down. "No.", "But you didn't even heard it yet.", "I'm not so sure I want to.", "You're so stubborn.", "I told you so." Deb replied to Amy, with the same expression as her sentence. "We'll take serious measures until you say yes." Emily said with a vicious grin, "You won't.", "We will. Now, listen to us. As you know, or you should know, our little Amy here celebrates her 18th birthday on this Saturday." Emily cheerfully said and waited for Beth to reply. "Yeah, and?" Beth said with the mouthful, looking at all three of them. "Consider this as an invitation. We won't take no as an answer. I'm not done yet." Em said before Beth could protest. "The party is in the Seer's. You know where's that, right?" When Beth nodded her head, she continued. "We know you don't like loud music or crowd places or people at all, but this is an 18th birthday. You remember yours, right?", "Mhm.", "Great. Now, what do you say?" Em asked with a smile. Beth swallowed the piece of a sandwich and clearly said 'no'. After Em twitched her brow, she cleared her throat and shouted over the dining room. "Hey, Dean!" The boy who sat on the next part of the room with a group of friends looked over at Emily. "Elizabeth said she likes you!" Em shouted once again, pointing her finger at Beth. For a moment, everyone went quiet when someone started with a 'ooh' shouts. Dean, the boy who was Em's (un)lucky random choice widened his eyes and slowly turned to his friends who were now laughing at him and tapping his back. While the whole school went crazy, Beth calmly ate her sandwich, not minding the noise around. "U-uhm, Em… wasn't that a little too much?" Deb said insecurely, looking from Beth to her. "Beth, I can set you up a date if we go on like this. All you have to say is yes.", "You really did it, huh?" Beth muttered with a soft smile. "I told you we'll take serious measures until you say yes.", "What are you going to do next?" Beth curiously asked. "Maybe I'll convince him it's some serious thing you're into.", "You know I'll say no to the end, right?", "Beth! Why? Why can't you come?" Emily was persistent. "Because it's the anniversary of my parents' death."

Emily tightly shut her eyes while Amy's jaw opened a little. "Oh, my God, Beth, I'm so sorry, I didn't know…" Emily stopped when Beth started giggling. "Oh my fucking God, I was joking. Your faces were priceless." Beth said while smiling and got a punch in the ribs from Emily. "God fucking damnit, I thought you were serious, Jesus Christ." She mumbled while shaking her head. "Anyway, I'll think about it." Beth said while standing up from the table. "You will?", "Yup. Now, if you'll excuse me." She said and went to her next class.  
In the hallway, before she went in, Beth saw that Dean boy, walking through the hall while reading through some papers in his hands. Black hair, black shirt, it was him. Beth got to him and put a hand on his shoulder, but he didn't even flinch, just kept moving."Don't worry, she wasn't serious. I don't like you." She said with a somehow comforting voice. A second after she said that, it rang and she ran into the classroom, leaving Dean alone again.  
'Okay, that boy is well-built. It felt like he wore pads on his shoulder or something.'

"What about this one?", "No, it's too bright.", "It won't be in the club.", "No. Next."  
Emily, Amy and Debbie together with Beth were looking clothes for the party that Beth supposed to wear. To everyone's surprise, Beth agreed to come, but only because she probably won't see them again. And it's been a long time since she got out. She also had time to finish her work.  
Now, the worst part of that for Beth was shopping. She absolutely hated it. All that walking, trying clothes on only to buy a single piece of cloth that she doesn't like. With parties is worse because you get to wear that only once. Appropriate for a party. For school? Not so much.  
"Well, since you have pretty big breasts, I'd suggest you tight strapless shirt." Emily said to Beth while showing her 3 different shirts, just as she described. "Why strapless and tight?", "Tight because it shows your good figure, like your flat stomach and waist. Strapless because it will really look good on you.", "You know I don't care about that." Beth pointed out her simple style of wearing. "I know, I know, but this is special occasion and you can look special at least once a year.", "…Okay… Then why does it have to be bright?", "Here we go again." Em dramatically said and took a deep breath. "I want it to be in dark colors.", "No, not this time. After we find you that, heels are next.", "No. Anything but heels, please. Spare me at least of that." Beth begged girls, but it didn't work.

After Beth put her black jeans, violet strapless shirt with a bow around it and a black glittery heel with platform on, she put on a little bit of make-up and a hairspray on her now curled hair. 'I'm starting to think that it goes in a completely different order, but whatever.' Finally, she sprayed her rarely used perfume, put on a jacket and left the apartment.  
The girls said they'd wait for her near the Seer's, she forgot the name of the place. But it's not that it mattered because they couldn't be unnoticed even if Beyoncé stood next to them.  
"Beth, finally!" Debbie shouted, even Beth had 20 feet to reach them. As she got closer, she was about to apologize for 'being late', but Emily's talking stopped her. "I create miracles." With those words Beth's brow twitched on her own. "I don't look that different…" Beth murmured. "And what's with you? Aren't you guys cold?" she asked while looking at their skirts. And while looking at their outfits, she saw that there were 3 or 4 more girls that she didn't know. But the whole night is ahead of them. "Since we're all here, let's go." Amy said and led the group to the well-known place. 

* * *

You guys.  
I don't even know why are you reading this, it's boring as hell. It went on a completely different path than I imagined.  
Well, just wanted to tell you that Sebby's role is going to be on the scene soon. If I don't fuck it up.


	5. Girls are having fun, except one

It took Beth some time before she got used to loud music and flickering lights in all colors. From what Deb told her, Amy's uncle owned the club. That was why they got in just like that and had a reserved table, just for 8 of them. "Beth, come with me." Emily shouted loud enough for Beth to hear her. "What do you want, Beth?", "Jack.", "Two Jacks for us, please." She told to Amy as she dragged her to the girl's restroom. "What is so important?" Beth asked when Em stood right in front of her and took some of her make-up out. "Don't find this offensive, but I should have told you how to put on make-up.", "Why? What's wrong?" Beth asked while frowning. "Nothing is wrong, except that you didn't put enough of it. Close your eyes.", "What was I supposed to do, make a clown out of myself?" Beth asked as she felt a brush on her left lid. "No, of course not. We just need to highlight those big, blue eyes of yours. You know it's rare to see a girl with black hair to have blue eyes?", "…I do now." Beth insecurely said. "Wait, where are your glasses?", "I put my lenses on." "Oh. You're probably wondering who're those girls, right?", "Pretty much, yes.", "Well, they're Amy and my friends from other school, I'll introduce you.", "Right. Are you done?", "Just a moment… Here" Em said and Beth opened her eyes. "There's no need for a lipstick, your lips are naturally pink. What do you say?", "But didn't you say that the colors won't be outstanding in the club? And who'll look at my eyes, anyway?"Beth asked while looking at golden eye shadow and a perfect black line on her upper lids. "I lied. And you're right. No one will be looking at your eyes when you have a body like that." Em smirked and pushed Beth forward by hitting her butt, while a yelp escaped Beth's lips.  
By the time they got back, everyone had their drinks in front of them. Beth sat next to Deb and sipped the Jack down her throat. "Oh, right, before I forgot. Beth, these are Annie, Rebecca, Justine and Chris. Guys, this is Beth, our friend from school." Emily introduced them and Beth smiled at them. "Nice to meet you." She said and took another sip from her glass. She saw them moving their lips, but didn't hear, although there was a probability of 98% that they said the same.

"I don't even know how you managed to drag me in this place. There're sweaty people everywhere."A tall man with black hair complained to his friend while making his way through the crowd in the club. "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot you visit only fancy places." his friend replied sarcastically. "Yes, I prefer polite places over these, kill me.", "Tch. At least pretend you're having fun. Maybe you find a girl or something.", "Yeah, if there is some who is older than 18, that'd be great."  
"Hey, Claude, long time no see! Where were you, man?" Middle aged man approached to two friends, shaking their hands. "Nick, how is it going? Still letting under aged girls in?", "Same old, same old. Nah, only sometimes, like today.", "Oh?", "Yeah, my niece is celebrating her birthday.", "Oh. Did she bring her friends?", "Oh my God, Claude, shut up." His friend butted in the conversation. "What? If they're over 18, they're good.", "Your choice in females is… ugh.", "Well, it was nice to meet you, but I gotta go. There's a club to run."Nick greeted them and left. "Anyway, Sebs, you want a table or a bar?" Claude asked while looking around. "Considering the crowd in here, I doubt there are any tables free, so…", "There's one over there." Claude interrupted him and pointed at the tall table for two persons. "Why don't you sit while I get us drinks?", "Fine. I'll have the usual." Sebastian simply said and sighed while passing through the labyrinth of half naked bodies. There were women that practically shoved their behinds onto his crotch. He was polite enough not to touch them and move from his private area. It definitely was not his day. When he finally got to the table, some girl asked him if it was free. 'I haven't even sat down yet.' He thought and gave her a soft smile. "I'm sorry, but it's already taken.", "Too bad." The girl said and bit her lip. God, he hated when girls made that. Not in the good way, though. There were solid bites, but then there were those terrible ones which made you look like a lunatic. While he waited for Claude to come back, he looked around the club once again. The place had space and the schedule of stuff was neatly settled. It even had the second floor, which was as crowded as the first one. When he took a better look, he saw a group of girls sitting and laughing on the middle of the second floor. There was one with long black hair that got his attention. He was looking at her until Claude's face ruined the image. "So… you caught anything?" he asked while smirking. Sebastian's answer was his glare. "You know, if you stare long enough, without blinking, at someone, the other can get a feeling that your eyes are lasers.", "Can you say something smart for a change? What took you so long, anyway?", "Oh… there was this girl at the bar and…not my type. What were you staring at?" Sebastian took a sip of his Lag and showed with his eyes at the group of girls. Claude immediately turned around, without a slightest trace to be discrete and checked them out. "And there you were, complaining about 18 year olds. But the red one can pass. Shall we go upstairs?" he asked and grinned at Sebastian. "Come on, no. It was really hard to get to this seat, you know.", "I don't know what're you talking about.", "Well, you probably don't mind if there's someone who tries to climb on your dick.", "If it's a girl, I don't." Claude casually said and Sebastian gave up on him. "Why don't you live a little. Since Valerie dumped you, you're not the same person.", "Will you please give it a rest already? It's been two years, for fuck's sake.", "Ooh, it's like an oil to the fire. Why don't you have one night stands?", "Please, it's despicable as it sounds.", "Have you ever had any?", "No.", "Then you can't talk about it if you haven't tried it.", "It's even lowlier than selling your body.", "Well, not everyone wants to obligate to one woman.", "But in the end, they all do.", "Yeah, but at least they had fun in their life.", "So, you're saying you can't have fun with only one woman without physical interaction?", "Pretty much.", "Go kill yourself."

"Girls, how is it going?", "Uncle, Nick, hey!" Amy said and stood up to hug her uncle. "Have there been any problems?", "No, not the slightest.", "You have enough drinks?", "Yes.", "Great, then I won't bother you anymore. Have fun." Amy's uncle said and left. "Amy, you're so lucky. I wish my family had a club or something." One of those 4 girls that Beth forgot her name said. "Yeah.", "Well, suck it bitches." Amy playfully said and finished off her drink. Until now, Beth drank only three glasses. Luckily, there was a surprisingly nice waitress that brought them their drink all over again. Deb was being boring while showing guys to Beth all the time. Since she had her back turned to the first floor, she didn't want to turn around all the time so she was looking at the men and women around her, dancing and drinking. "Is anyone for a dance?" Amy asked, already standing up. "Oh, I'm in." Emily, Justine and Chris said. Beth really didn't intend to move an inch from her spot, so she stayed, together with Deb, Annie and Rebecca at the table. "Whoa, look at them go." Deb said while looking at the girls dancing. Emily even found a guy. "Uhm, Beth?" a girl that sat next to Beth called for her. "Yes? Rebecca?" when the brown haired girl nodded, Beth gave her a soft smile. She got closer to Beth and started talking. "I didn't want to tell you before, but there's a guy down there who's been staring at you quite the time now.", "Oh?" Beth asked. "How does he look like?" she asked, but didn't really care. "Well-built, tall, very handsome. I'd give him 24. To your left." Beth laughed a little because there was no way the guy would be staring at her, there are three girls with her. Rebecca nonchalantly tossed a napkin on the floor and asked Beth to pick it up for her. Beth saw through her plan and while being bent, she looked at the said guy through her hair. "Well?" Rebecca asked with an amusing smile on her lips. "He turned his head away, I can't see a thing.", "His friend is climbing up." She said after looking in his direction again. "And he's coming this way." Beth just drank the liquid in her glass as Rebecca started fixing her hair, but the supposed guy casually walked over to Deb and sat down next to her, on Emily's spot. Beth smirked behind her glass and watched as the guy talked to Deb. Two seconds after, Deb got up and said to Beth she's going to dance with him. 'Surprisingly fast.' "Well, we're going to find us some guys to dance with. Can you watch over our stuffs, too?" Rebecca asked her politely. "Uhm, sure, good luck." 'Okay, why did I say that?' Beth asked herself while looking at empty chairs where all 8 of them were together 30 minutes ago. Now she really couldn't go anywhere, just when she had to adjust her lenses. She looked at the dance floor to see if anyone is going to come up. Right. Emily and Amy were dancing with some boys. Chris with a… girl? Beth couldn't tell right. The person had short hair, but a feminine figure. Deb was nowhere to be seen. Annie and Rebecca as well. Oh, well, she'll just have to endure it.

As he stared at the girl, Sebastian was considering about walking over to her, before others come back. It's been a long time since the others left her and no one approached her yet. And he, on the other hand, had at least 6 girls that tried to talk to him, but when the last one was overly persistent and sat on Claude's place, he stood up and walked to the empty place in the dark. Claude wouldn't mind because Sebastian saw him kissing with that red head he had an eye on in the corner. This meant that Sebastian could casually go home without telling him. He's been here long enough. But still… he could at least talk to that girl. While still holding his 6th or 7th glass of his favorite drink, he headed to the second floor and, of course, girls stood on his way.  
After somehow politely dealing with them, he made it to the top. 'The' girl now had her head leaned on her left hand and he still couldn't see her face. Just as he started walking, some guy suddenly showed up in front of her. God damnit. To make things worse, an overly drunk girl practically glued herself onto Sebastian, murmuring nonsense, like any drunk person does. He tried talking to her, but it was in vain. Then he tried to sit her down somewhere, it was also in vain: the drunkard was tripping on the flat floor. For a moment, he glanced over to the girl he was aiming at, but there were her friends again at the table with her. 'Now I can really go home.'

* * *

And here I wanted to tuck a little of a social life.


	6. Really?

Since she waited for so fucking long for at least one of the girls to show up, Beth lost a lens and there was no way she was going to look for it. She could only pray for another one not to fall off. And as the time passed, she was still the only one the waitress had to bring drinks to. Her spine couldn't be in the straight position anymore, so she had to lean on the table. Giving dirty looks to others somehow helped because no one dared to approach to her, except that one guy. Of course, why wouldn't there be any exceptions? "You up for a dance?" The guy asked as he got way to close to Beth. "Obviously not. Have you heard of personal space?" Beth said and gave him an uninterested look. "Aw, c'mon, it'll be fun." He was persistent and grabbed her hand. 'Okay, that's enough.' Beth thought and just as she was about to become violent, girls showed up. 'Thank God.' "Is there a problem?" Emily asked with a guy standing behind her. It was probably the one she was dancing with. "Yes, there is." Beth angrily said and looked at the guy that was holding her hand. "O-oh, no, not at all." The guy muttered and disappeared in a second. "Thank you." Beth said with a relief and let out a sigh when the girls sat down. She didn't even realized she was holding her breath. "Anyway, I think I'll just go home.", "What? Why? It's still early." Amy got upset when Beth stood up. "I'm sorry, but I can't stand being here anymore. I'm not a girl for places like this. I had fun with you guys and all, but I have to go. Thank you for everything." After she said everything she had in mind, she noticed that Deb wasn't there. "Do you want us to escort you home?" One of them asked and Beth started laughing. "Please, don't be ridiculous. I think I'll find my way home. See you at school.", "Be careful."

When Beth got downstairs, she had to look for an exit first, which was very hard when there are bunch of people in front of you. Then she had to made her way through that bunch. While she was going through that sweaty pile of bodies, she was sure someone was touching her ass, purposely, but she decided to ignore it. It was dark and someone maybe thought it was somebody's else. Beth soon abandoned that theory of hers when she felt two palms on her ass, just before she managed to open the door. Her tolerance broke there and she quickly turned around and looked at the boy who was laughing at her. Maybe it was the alcohol or the surge of anger, but that boy got a fist into his jaw. From Beth. It sure got them a lot of attention, but Beth quickly went out and rushed to her home. The wind that blew outside gave her chills and sort of woke her up a little.  
On halfway home, she realized that her feet hurt, from the high heels because she was always wearing her one and only Converse shoes. Those heels won't meet her feet for an eternity. Every step she made was followed by 'ow' in her head. If she doesn't take them off soon, her foot will start to bleed. So, to prevent that, Beth started walking faster with a longer step. Yes, she probably looked like an idiot, but there's no one familiar to see her like that. She hoped.

After Sebastian finally got rid of the drunk girl by sticking her to another guy, he noticed that his tonight's target with black hair disappeared. Totally not his day. Since there was no girl that intrigued him as much as that one, he decided to go home. And again, he had to go through hell just to get out.  
To shorten his way home, he took a shortcut to his building. He used it almost every day when coming back from school. It was a simple, one-way street with now bare naked trees on each side of the road. Every other lamp was working, but there was this one that worked for a minute, then it'd turn off for two and then it'd work again. The strong wind that suddenly blew pierced through his jacket and shirt and spread chills all over his body. He should have gone with his car. After he finally got to an end of the street and turned left, he saw his building and rushed inside.

Beth was quite surprised to find out that the elevator in their building was finally fixed. The first thing when she got in was that she took off her shoes and happily sighed. Then she pressed the button for the sixth floor and leaned on the wall. Right before the door closed, someone rapidly burst in and collided with her, pressing then both against the wall. Beth screamed and shut her eyes as she hit the wall with her back. "Oh, shit I'm so sorry, are you okay? I didn't know someone was in here." The person said after moving from her. Beth opened her eyes and breathed out slowly. "The fuck is wrong with you?" she asked and looked the person in the face. "Oh…" Beth was speechless after she saw her neighbor, professor, Sebastian standing in front of her. Then she twitched an eyebrow, repeating her question. "No, really, what the hell?", "I'm really, really, really, really, really sorry. Are you feeling well?", "Say really one more time, come on, please, say it.", "…Really." He sarcastically said and smiled. Beth clenched her fist and released a sigh. "And I see you're perfectly fine." Then he looked at her shoes, her feet and finally at her. "What's with the…", "Don't ask. Just don't." Beth calmly said and picked them up. The elevator stopped and the door opened. Sebastian got out first and quickly got to his door, while Beth slowly tapped to her doorstep and even slower unlocked her door. "It really was an accident. I'm really sorry and I really hope that you'll forgive me. Really." Sebastian said before he got in. Beth started to laugh and shook her head. 'Idiot.'

"Well, thank you for staying 'till the end. I had to go home alone." Beth was listening to Deb's lecture through the phone. "Hngh… so what? You had company.", "Girls had their own…", "I'm talking about that guy you made out with.", "… W-well yeah, but he had to go so I was alone again." Beth rubbed her eyes while yawning. "Are you listening to me?" Deb's sudden voice made her twitched. "Yeah, yeah, I'm listening.", "Are you still sleeping? It's 1 o'clock.", "Yeah, I am. So what?", "Hah…", "Anyway, did you give your number to that friend of yours?", "Maybe. And how do you know about that? Wait. Emily told you.", "Mhm.", "I knew it.", "What's his name?", "Claude.", "Claude? How… sophisticated." Beth said and snorted at her own statement. "Yeah… I'm gonna go now.", "I hope Claude calls you.", "Shut up." Deb said and hung up. 'What? I was serious.' Beth thought and stretched in her bed, turned on her right side and fell asleep again.

* * *

"Attention to the students and professors." A female voice could be heard through the loudspeakers in the whole school. "Today, at the science laboratory, has been an accident and we are obliged to warn you that Bob, our test subject, had escaped his cage. Bob is a spider, tarantula to be specific. He's now wandering inside the school. If you meet him, please call our janitor, , and he'll catch it. Please don't panic, it's not poisonous." After the last words were spoken, the whole cafeteria was silent, with everyone staring at some point on the table or the wall. "What do you mean, don't panic? Of course I'll panic.", "I'm going home." Students began their complaining and the cafeteria was as noisy as ever. "Ah, so did Claude call you?" Beth asked Deb ignoring the announcement from the speakers. "A-ah, yes, he did.", "Aaaand?", "We have a date this Saturday." Usually, Deb would be hopping and singing and laughing at the news like that, but that wasn't possible at the moment. She was slightly shocked from the news. "That's great. It's yours 3rd date since you've met.", "It is. Yeah."

Since it was the last week of school, it was boring at classes because they were doing nothing. Literally nothing. Teachers would tell them to talk with each others while they were doing something… related to school. But in math class, Sebastian gave them work sheets while he was writing something, it was probably also related to school. As usual, Beth finished first and put the paper in the corner of the table. She leaned her head on her hand and watched how it snowed. Very amusing. Suddenly, Brian started screaming in panic. As everyone, Beth also turned to him and saw as Brian was staring at his hand on which was a huge spider. It had to be that tarantula that escaped. While Brian was screaming, with his other free hand he kicked the spider and it flew right into Beth's hoodie. Beth widened her eyes as she felt the spider crawling on her back. Without thinking, she fell down and violently took the hoodie off. The spider fell to the floor and Beth madly squished it with her fist, with spider's blood and insides leaking from her palm. "Oh my God…" someone said and Beth looked at the surprised and disgusted faces of her colleagues staring at her. She then realized that she was on the floor, in a bra, with a squished spider in her hand. After clearing her throat, she stood up and somehow cleaned her palm. "Uhm… may I go to-", "Please." Sebastian told her before she could finish her question. So she headed to the bathroom while holding hoodie on her chest. "Can someone please go get Mr. Barnis?" Sebastian asked the class, who stared at the dead spider.

"Oh my fucking God, that was horrible!" Beth yelled while rubbing her hand with soap. "I know, but you… How could you kill it? That thing is… was huge." Deb started with questions after following Beth to the bathroom. "Don't ask me, it was reflexive.", "Come on, you already washed it.", "I just can't get rid of that disgusting feeling. I think it'll will haunt me for ages."

* * *

Something "interesting" had to happen here.


	7. Someone new

„So, Beth, you free tomorrow after school?" Deb asked with her usual smile on her face. "I'm afraid to ask why." Beth answered with her usual frown. "Don't be like that.", "And how in the world could I not to? Ever since I killed that… 'that' today, everyone's been staring at me like I'm some kind of killer.", "Technically, you are a killer. It was a precious test subject after all.", "Well, thank you for your comforting words, really." Beth sarcastically said and shook her head. If it was someone else than Deb, he wouldn't notice the sarcasm because of Beth's ever so moody facial expression. If you could even call it an expression. "Anyway, I'm free. What do you want?", "I was thinking about going out for pizza with girls, nothing serious, I promise.", "If it's food, I'm in."

Beth's desire for food has gotten bigger as the time passed. She started eating right, almost too much, just like when she was younger and when she wasn't working. In short, when her parents were still alive. They called her that evening to tell her they'll be coming home soon. But 30 minutes later, the call she got wasn't from them and it wasn't good. It was from hospital, telling her parents died in a car accident and that there was no way they could have saved them. The road was slippery and they couldn't stop in time. They ended up practically smashed up against the tree, with another car crashed into them. Beth didn't cry nor scream nor anything that could say that she was broken. She simply sat down and stayed quiet, without a trace of expression on her face. Nothing changed from then. In over two years she didn't cry or laugh from the heart. They stopped existing for her.

Why did she have to remember that right now? They were casually sitting and eating pizza, but no, Beth had to ruin it. Lucky for her, no one noticed the difference in her behavior. Although she should have listen for what girls have been talking about. If they ask for her opinion, then she'll have to talk. And she's not in the mood for talking, only eating. Maybe if she could finish eating and go home with an excuse… Beth suddenly widened her eyes and put her piece of pizza down. "I'm sorry, girls, I have to go.", "Why? What happened?", "I remembered I have to drink my medicine.", "What are you talking about? You didn't mention anything about that." Deb asked confused. "Yeah, I didn't tell you, but it's some shit for my blood or something. I wasn't quite listening to my doctor." She said and added a small smile. "You are so irresponsible." Amy said and sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. You have fun and… we'll hear during holiday, right?", "Sure.", "Of course." Beth heard them saying and raised a hand to greet them, so she doesn't yell all over the place.  
Beth took a deep breath when she got out and headed home. 'That was lame as fuck.' She thought of her excuse. 'But it worked.' Now she can dedicate herself to work again, since they had a three-week break. How lovely.  
As she was carefully walking on the snow-covered walkway, someone big and tall bumped into her and she couldn't keep her balance anymore. In a blink of eye she was lying on the cold white floor with a pain in her back. "Oh, Jesus, are you alright?" a male voice reached her ears and it was somehow familiar. "Uhm… yeah, I guess." Beth muttered while sitting up. "Here, let me help you." She heard him saying and took his arm that showed up in front of her face. Once she was on her two feet again, he handed her bag to her. 'Unbelievably polite, considering this is New York.', "You're not from here, aren't you?" she suspiciously asked while studying his face. His eyes and hair were navy blue, unusual. His hair was spiky and it slightly covered his right eye. "No, I'm only visiting my brother." He suddenly said. 'That explains the bag.' Because he was carrying a huge bag. Although he should have take the suitcase. "I also think I'm lost. Could you help me?", "Sure. Where do you need to go?" she asked with slight insecure. It wouldn't be a surprise if he robbed her or something. When he showed her a paper with the address the same as hers, she looked from the paper to him. "Is this some kind of a joke?" Beth asked, raising her eyebrow. "No.", "Are you sure you have the right name?", "I'm 100% sure, my brother had to spell it for me.", "Oh, really? What's his name?" "Sebastian." He said with a questioning look on his face. 'No way.'

"Here we are." Beth said to Ciel when they got to the building. She even asked for his ID to make sure he's not lying. It really was him, Sebastian's brother. He was as tall as Sebastian, too. "So, it was practically behind the corner?", "Yeah… a 5 or 6 corners, but yes." They went in the elevator and Beth pressed the button with a number 6 on it. "So how do you know Sebs? Are you his girlfriend?" he innocently asked. Beth laughed for about 5 seconds and shook her head. "No, we're neighbors.", "Oh. That's great." He muttered. "Eh? Did you say something?", "No, nothing." When they got to the 6th floor, Beth just showed him his brother's door and unlocked hers, without greeting him. Just as she took off her shoes and coat and entered the living room, she heard knocking on her door. "Yeah it's me again." Ciel stood in front of her, with an awkward smile. "He's not home yet, I just called him." He didn't have to talk anymore. "Ah, come in." Beth moved aside and let him in.

"So, this is your first time here?" Beth asked while drinking her coffee. "Well, yeah, in this part of the city. Sebs recently moved here.", 'How come I didn't see him before?', "I mean, I always visit him over holidays, because that's the only time when we can hang out together.", "Do you agree with him?", "There are times when we fight, like, really fight. Of course, he always wins, and I'm the one covered in bruises.", "What are you, 10?", "No, I'm 19.", 'I wasn't really asking.' Beth thought as her brow twitched. "You live alone?" Ciel asked while looking around her living room. "Yup.", "It must be great. Living alone.", "Yeah, hella great." She sarcastically said and took another sip of her coffee. "You can play games and such. By the way, do you? Play games? Like PS3 or something?", "You're a funny guy, you know?" after he frowned at her, she continued. "I'm busy most of the time, so I don't play them like before. Yes, I have PS3, but it's covered in dust somewhere.", "Really? What are you doing that makes you so busy?" he asked and leaned his head on the couch. "I have a job.", "Oh? What kind of?", "Computer programmer.", "Sounds boring.", "You get used to it… And I suppose you graduated from school, so what are you going to do in life?", "Dad already got me into his business world. I don't think I have any other options." He said and rolled his eyes. "Where do you live, anyway?", "Washington.", "Huh.", "But it's a lot nicer here.", "I wouldn't agree." Beth shook her head. "Why?", "Everyone are so impolite, criminal is everywhere, people kill each other with no reason.", "Then why don't you move somewhere else?", "I have to graduate first. I mean, it'd be absurd to move now because the school ends in 6 months." Ciel widened his eyes as he stared at her. "No way… you still go to high school? And I thought you were older than me." Beth smiled at his confused face. "Yeah, I am older than you. A year older, but I went to school a little later than I should.", "Oh… well, that explains a lot." 'Of course it does, I just said it.', "So, wha-" the ringing of his phone stopped them in their conversation. "Excuse me." He said and answered. "Ciel. You idiot." Beth heard the voice through the phone. "It's good to hear you, too, Sebs.", "Where the fuck are you? I precisely told you to wait for me at the station.", "Eehh, but it was cold. And you gave me the address, anyway. Oh, right. I'm at yours neighbor's home. Where are yo-" The line went dead and Ciel just stared at the screen. "He's like that sometimes. Or most of the time." 5 seconds after, a ringing echoed through Beth's apartment. "That's him all right." Ciel said and stood up, putting his bag onto his shoulder. Beth opened the door, and yes, Sebastian was there, with not so happy face on. "Oh, evening." Beth greeted him, looking straight into his eyes. "I'm sorry my idiot of a brother caused you problems." Sebastian politely said, also looking down to Beth. "No, he didn't. Don't sweat it." Just as Beth answered, Ciel passed next to her and faced his brother. Beth could just stare at them because she realized how tall they actually were. As Sebastian just pushed Ciel to his apartment, Ciel half-turned to Beth and thanked her for the coffee and then they disappeared behind the door. 'Brotherly love.'

* * *

Beth could only curse the person who woke her up from her deep sleep by ringing on her door. It was Thursday, no one should be bothering her. Yet. She quickly put her glasses on and rushed to open the door, completely lost in time and space. There was a delivery guy in front of her, speechless as he stared at her. "Do you need something?" Beth broke the silence first. 'I know I probably look like a shit, but still…', "T-that'll be 45$, Miss.", "What is?", "Your order.", "What are you talking about? I didn't order anything." She asked while frowning. "Yes, you did. Last night you called and told us to bring it here at 10 a.m.", "Oh, fuck. That's right. Shit, I'm sorry." Beth started apologizing and went to get money. She totally forgot about that. The guy smiled and went after Beth told him to keep the change. As she turned to get in, she hit the wall with the box. It didn't fall, but the bag on it did. She started swearing quietly, hoping that the burgers were fine. "Good morning, Beth." She suddenly heard a cheerful voice of her neighbor and stood up. There was Sebastian, who was unlocking the door and Ciel, who was looking at her from head to toe. "Morning." Beth muttered and nodded her head, carefully walking into her apartment. She didn't want any more food casualties.  
When she left the food in the kitchen, bathroom was her next destination. In the big mirror above the sink she could see how she really looked. Her usual bed hair was there, as any other day, she had a simple black tank top that climbed up to her stomach with one strap on her shoulder, the other one fell down and… panties. Beautiful. No wonder the delivery guy stared. The scene could be compared to one from a cliché porn.

* * *

Ah, yes, I gave Ciel 19 years, don't know why. I'm trying to type more than 2000 words for a chapter, but my brain stops working around 1800. Considering this, the story should have somewhere around 30 chapters.  
Oh, and, is there something I should change? I mean, if something really annoys you and you think I should stop using.


	8. Brat

While Beth was working on her laptop and drinking coffee, someone knocked on her door. 'A man can't have his own peace even during holidays.' She thought while dragging her body to the door. "Hey, Beth." Ciel cheerfully said to her with a wide smile on his face. She really… didn't know what to think. "Hey. You need something?" Beth quickly got to the point. "Actually, I was wondering if you're free today.", "And why would you wonder that?", "You see, I'm bored and Sebs' pretty busy himself with some shit and… I'm bored." He sounded like a spoiled brat. "Okay. And you expect me to do what?", "Take me somewhere.", "Excuse me?" Beth asked and raised her brow. "Yeah, let's go to the cinema or something.", "Why would I do that?" she asked with an indifferent face. "To make me happy." Ciel simply said and grinned. Beth was so close to slam the door right into his face. "Sorry, no can do." Words were followed with a slight growling in her voice. "Aw, come on, please. Just for tonight. I'll pay for food.", "I have work to do." Actually, she had 15 minutes or so to finish the program. "We won't take long. Please. I'll bother you if you don't say yes." 'This sounds so familiar.', "You mean more than you do now?", "Yeah!" Oh, how Beth wished to face palm herself at the moment. "I'll even kneel down for you.", "Please don't. How about this? Why don't you go outside, find a girl, flirt here and there with her and take her to the cinema or somewhere else?", "No, I might get a STD or something.", "I said hang out, not sleep with her.", "Doesn't matter, I want to hang out with you.", "Why?", "You're a lot more fun than anyone else.", "You know me for a week.", "That's enough for me.", "You're way too trustworthy, you know?", "I don't care. Please go out with me." Beth took a long sigh and thought for a moment. "Fine.", "Really?", "Yes. Give me half an hour.", "I'll be here. Thank you so much." He said and quickly went to his brother's apartment. 'Idiot number 2.'

"You look great." Ciel complimented Beth. "I just changed clothes.", "But you still look great." Beth just sighed and quietly went into the elevator. "Have you checked which movies are playing?", "I want to see Here comes the Devil.", "Really? You won't get scared?" Beth teasingly asked and smirked. "I hope not.", 'You got to be kidding me.'  
All the way to cinema Ciel didn't shut up. He was asking Beth all kinds of questions and she had to answer them. At some point she just wanted to turn around and go home, but she couldn't leave him in the middle of the street. It was like she was babysitting a 7-year-old brat, only this one was 6 feet tall.  
In the cinema, Beth bought them tickets while Ciel went to buy snacks and drinks. "I hope this will be enough." He said when they sat down in their seats and Beth looked at the popcorns, chocolate bars and gummy bears along with coke and then at him. "You better eat all of that." He suddenly said, smiling to her. "What do you mean? You don't expect me to eat all of that, do you?" It wasn't a problem at all to eat that, she just couldn't eat everything he bought, she's not that cruel. "Well, yeah. I ate at home.", "So did I. And don't argue with me.", "Okay.", 'He really is like a child.'

The first 15 minutes of the movie went well, but after that… not quite. When the "scary scenes" started, Ciel twitched, spilled some of his coke, accidentally hit Beth once, almost yelped and there were popcorns everywhere around them. At one scene he even grabbed Beth's hand and didn't let go until it was over. When there were sex scenes, Beth noticed he squirmed in his seat, too often. 'Jesus, help me.'

"Well, that was… fun." Ciel said when they were on the street again. "I enjoyed the movie. You?", "It was fine." As if. If she had a gun, she would shot herself. Twice. "Are you hungry? I am. Let's go to McDonald's." he quickly said and grabbed her hand and then pulled her to go faster.  
"What do you want?", "I'll pay for my food, thank you." Beth politely said. "But I said I…", "I am going to pay for my food, you pay for yours. End of the story." She shut him up with that. "Hnngh, fine." He said and pouted.  
"I see why you insisted on paying yourself." Ciel said while staring at Beth's plate full of food. "Can you even eat all of that?", "I wouldn't buy it if I couldn't." Beth said and started eating. Ciel could only look at her. "I've never met a girl that eats that much.", "There's always a first time." Beth said with a mouthful of food, looking around the place.  
"Beth?" she suddenly heard someone calling for her. "Is that you?" after she swallowed the piece of a burger, Beth turned to her right side where Emily was standing. "Oh, hey Em. What's up?", "Nothing much. You're uh… with your friend?" Emily asked while looking at Ciel. And then a bright light bulb turned on in Beth's head. "Yeah, this is my new friend, Ciel. Ciel, this is my friend from school Emily.", "Nice to meet you." Em quickly said and reached out her hand which Ciel gladly accepted. "Nice to meet you, too." He said and smiled. "Do you mind if I join you?", "Not at all, sit down." Emily sat next to Ciel because there was no space next to Beth. But knowing Emily, Beth knew that she'd sit beside Ciel even if there was enough space next to her. Emily started her talking to Ciel and the poor guy had to answer her questions. Beth wasn't listening, she was quietly eating her ice-cream.

"Beth, I think it's time to go.", "What? Already?" Beth tried to sound surprised. "Yeah, already?" Em asked, but she was serious about it. "Well, yeah. It's pretty late." Beth looked at her phone and indeed, it was late. She hasn't noticed. "Ah, yes. I'm tired.", "Too bad." Em got into their conversation. "Why don't you guys meet in the town one day? You're both free, right?" Beth suggested. "I'd love that.", "Y-yeah, sure." Ciel stuttered and they exchanged their phone numbers. "I'll call you." Em said before they left.

"Oh my God, that woman is so boring. She won't shut up." Ciel complained to Beth when they got out. "Yeah, that's Emily for you." Beth innocently said. "I mean, only words I said were 'yes', 'no', 'maybe' and 'really'. As if I care about what she did yesterday.", 'You're the same as her, idiot.' Beth looked aside and sighed. "Should we get a taxi? You said you're tired.", "No need, I can walk. Unless you're tired, too.", "Please." He simply said and continued walking with a smirk on his face. And then a second after, he started talking about irrelevant things. Again. 'Someone, please, kill me.'

"I had a great time today.", "Good, I'm glad you're happy." Beth said while unlocking her door. "When will our next date be? Tomorrow?", "Listen," Beth said after a long sigh, "I had fun, too, but, it was not a date, okay? You were bored and I entertained you, that's all.", 'My God, that sounds so wrong.', "Oh… well, thank you anyway." Beth nodded and opened her door. "Beth?" Ciel said and she turned to him. "What?" He got closer to her and gave her a small kiss on her cheek. "Good night." Ciel whispered and quickly went into his current home while Beth stood there like an idiot with an irritated expression on her face. 'This kid, I swear…'

Ciel continued bothering Beth with an excuse he was bored. One day he came to her place and talked her into playing PS3. No one in her whole life didn't say her name as much as Ciel in the past one week. For some inexplicable reason, she never said 'no' to his requests. Maybe she was bored, too. Or maybe it was something else. … Nah, she was definitely bored. Even the company she was working for gave her rest until school started. So her life was now… somehow empty. Nothing to study, nothing to do. "Luckily", Ciel was there to complicate her life.  
"What happened to spending time with your brother?" Beth suddenly asked while they played Diablo 3. "Huh? I don't know, he's quite busy.", "Isn't he always busy? Judging from your stories.", "I guess he is. Well, he's arguing with dad over work again, so, yeah, you could say he is busy.", "Huh."  
"Are you hungry?" Beth asked 10 minutes later. "Yeah, a little.", "I'll cook something, then. Do you like sausages?", "I love them." Ciel continued playing the game while Beth peeled the potatoes and sliced them into fries and frizzled sausages. "Get your ass here, it's done." Beth called for Ciel and suddenly felt like she was his mother. 'Wonderful feeling, really.' She sarcastically thought. While Ciel sat at the table and started eating, Beth was frying more fries and meat. "It's delicious." She heard Ciel saying. "Okay, just eat, then." Just when the last fry was out from the pan, someone rang on her door. Beth put the cruse with fries on the table and went to open the door. Since it was dark in the hall, she tripped over Ciel's shoes. "God dammit Ciel. You and your shoes. I told you where to put them." She scolded him while turning the light in the hall on and neatly putting his shoes next to hers. "Sorry." He apologized, like he didn't mean it. Beth finally opened the door and found Sebastian with a hand over his mouth, snickering. "I had a feeling it was you." Beth told him. "And what's so funny?" When Sebastian inhaled, his grin was still on his face. "Sorry, sorry. I came to pick Ciel up. Is he done playing?" he asked and started to laugh again. Seeing Sebastian laugh was pretty contagious, it passed over on Beth. "Ah, he's just eating, but he was a good kid today.", "I hear you, bastards." Ciel's voice got to them and they couldn't help it; the situation was funny. "Come on in." she invited him in and went straight to the kitchen to fry more food.

"So, did you have fun?", "More than you, ass.", "Ciel, we don't use that kind of vocabulary at the table, I think we discussed about that already." Sebastian talked to Ciel like he was some kind of baby. "I fucking hate you." Beth listened to two brothers' conversation and couldn't resist, she had to laugh. When they were done eating, she brought them Coca-Cola and cleaned the table. "Who wants ice-cream?" Beth asked like a mother would. "Me!" Ciel quickly and happily said. Sebastian and Beth looked at each other and burst out laughing. "You really are like a child, oh my God." Beth said while laughing and holding her stomach. "I really fucking hate you, guys."


	9. Holidays Or not

After Beth and Deb agreed to go shopping later, Beth was taking a bath. Deb will come around 4 o'clock and until then, she soaked in her tub filled with hot water. Beth nearly dozed off because of the steam and warmth of the water, but a doorbell awoken her. 'She's really quick today.' Beth thought while coming out of the tub. "Come in!" she shouted while poking her head through the bathroom door. Then she wrapped a towel around herself and her hair and got out. Since she knew Deb would sit on her usual spot on the couch, Beth went straight to the kitchen and took out a can of soda and made her way to the living room. "What made you come early to… day…?" she suddenly froze when instead of Deb she saw Sebastian, who was as much as surprised as she. Her mouth half-opened and she found herself unable to speak. He was the one who made the first move and turned around. "This…", "…Is awkward, I know. I'm sorry, but you said to come in and I did." Sebastian explained, still turned around while Beth didn't know what to do, so she backwardly went to the kitchen, hitting a chair on her way, and hid behind the wall. "So, uhm… you need something?" she asked a little louder so he could hear her. "Yeah, the Idiot said he lost his phone and told me to ask you.", "Why didn't he come by himself?" There really was no need to clarify that 'the Idiot' was Ciel. "I don't know, he said he's scared of your reaction or something.", "I-I'll look for it later." Beth heart beating sped up and she started breathing deeply which caused towel to loosen up on her chest and open. "Okay, can you bring it over, then?" Sebastian asked while Beth was fixing the towel. "S-sure.", "Thank you. I'll be going, then.", "Okay." She managed to speak. When she heard the door closed, Beth sat on the chair, with her hands shaking. 'Oh, my God. Oh. My. God. Kill me, please.'

"Beth, I'm home!" Beth twitched when Deb burst in. "Hey, Deb.", "What in the world are you doing?" she asked Beth with a confused look. "Oh… I… was just thinking and… stuff.", "In a towel?", "Yeah." There was no way she was going to tell her what just happened. She'd haunt her for the rest of her life because of that. Beth handed her the soda can. "So… you're gonna dress up or?", "Oh, right, right. I'll be right back."  
After Beth dressed up and dried her hair, she found Deb sitting on the couch, watching TV and laughing like an idiot. "Shall we?" Beth asked her while turning the lights off. "I was wondering… Do you ever watch TV?", "Yes.", "What, once a month?", "That's enough for me.", "Figures.", "Shut up."

* * *

"So, how are you and Claude doing?", "I don't know… First he doesn't call for a week and then he calls me every day. When we meet he's neither in a good or bad mood. I don't know what to think anymore.", "Well, are you dating or not?", "I don't know!" Deb shouted and everyone in the store turned to them. "I don't know." She then repeated a little quieter. Deb seemed upset and Beth wasn't good in these kinds of conversations. Well, it's not like other kinds were any better, but still… "Don't get me wrong, but I think it's because you're too… hmm… easy to get." After Deb turned to her and narrowed her eyes, Beth corrected herself. "What I meant is that you need to be hard to get. Don't meet whenever he wants, but when you want. Even if it's hard, refrain yourself. What else… Don't do everything he asks you to.", "What, you mean it'll help?", "I'm not 100% sure, but try it. You don't have to answer at the same moment he calls you on the phone. Let him wait. As I said; hard to get.", "Thanks for the advices, I'll try to put some effort in them.", "Fine, your choice."

3 hours later, when Deb (and Beth) bought everything she had to, they were wandering around the mall, looking around. Finally, they sat in some café. When Deb started talking about Christmas and such, Beth stopped listening, because first: she absolutely hated the fact she'll have to buy all the shit for Christmas. Second; she saw a GameStop not far from the place they were at. It was a GameStop, which meant they had PS4 which meant she can buy it for Ciel so he doesn't bother her anymore. He did say something he broke his old one at home and neither his parents nor Sebastian don't want to buy it for him. 'Perfect.' Beth thought and smirked. "Deb, please, order for me. I'll be right back." She said and quickly went to the store.  
As usual, there were only men and boys inside, giving her surprised looks. Beth went straight to the cashier and asked for the thing she came for. She also listed him the games she'll take. Even though the price was high, it was worth for her freedom for the rest of the holidays. After she paid for it, Beth happily went out.  
"So, what did you buy?" Deb curiously asked her when she came back. "PS4.", "Really? Is your old one not good enough?", "It's not for me.", "Then for whom?", "My neighbor.", "Why would you buy something like that for your neighbor?", "Believe me, it's worth it.", "Why?", "Jesus, Deb…" Beth sighed and started telling her everything what happened since she met Ciel.

"Do I see a new love story on sight?" Deb enthusiastically asked after Beth told her everything. "God, no. What is wrong with you? No. No. Nope. Not in a million years. No." Beth shivered at the thought. "Why not? He seems hot from your description.", "How many times do I have to tell you that's not everything in looks. And besides, he's not my type.", "Holy shit Beth, you have a type? That's new.", "Shut up.", "It seems he's really into you.", "Even if he is, he's going to be hugely disappointed. I only see him as a brother. 10-year-old brother, that is.", "Too bad.", "No, I already tried to set Em to him. Don't know if they've been out yet.", "Anyway, that is the reason you've bought him PS4?", "Yeah.", "You're crazy.", "I'd become crazy if he bothered me more than this. He's like a male version of you, only 10 times more boring.", "Hey!" Deb frowned and turned her head from Beth. "Hey! I almost forgot." She quickly continued. "My parents invited you to the Christmas lunch. You're coming, right?", "I'll think about it.", "I'll take it as a yes, then.", "Fine, but we'll go to buy something for them now. And you're coming with me.", "Right, right."

* * *

When Beth came home from shopping, she immediately went to eat the burgers she bought on the way home. It was a snowy day and she was wet from head to toe. But the food came first and then showering.  
After dressing up into her casual clothes again, Beth then started to wrap presents for Ciel, Deb and her parents. She kind of felt bad for not buying anything for Sebastian. She did buy Ciel one hella present, but nothing for him. 'Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow.' Because she was going to buy a Christmas tree then.  
While she was sitting on the couch watching TV, Beth suddenly remembered Ciel lost his phone here and she said she was going to bring it over to them. She quickly started looking under the couch, tables, chairs, carpets, in the hall, bathroom and kitchen. It wasn't there. And then it occurred to her. Sebastian said that he lost his phone, but not at her place, it could be anywhere. That idiot, worrying her and all.

* * *

The next day, Beth went to her last shopping for Christmas lunch and pastries, tree and a present. What could she buy to a guy she barely knows, but she has to? As she was walking around the mall once again, her problems were solved when she saw a shop with neckties. Beth went in that instant and started searching. The choice was really big, from the cartoon to vulgar ones, then the simple to disgusting ones. It became quite bothersome to look anymore and she refused help from the shop assistant already from the start. But when she saw the one in the math style and decided to take it. Funny, because he is a professor after all. Since she couldn't just take the tie, she had to buy at least one more thing. Chocolate. Chocolate solves everything. So she entered the store with all kinds of chocolate. But the best choice was the Swiss chocolate, everyone loves that.  
On her way home, she meet at least 5 sellers of Christmas trees, but bought one that was the nearest to her home. And so she was carrying her stuff like a mule in the cold, snowy day. She was wet again, but screw it. She was glad the shopping was over.

* * *

Ah, so this one's kind of boring. And short. And meaningless. But here you have it.


	10. This isn't right

Beth was baking pastries when Ciel came over again. He said that Sebastian was doing the same thing as she, so he came to play games. Beth just sent him to the living room and gave him some pieces of already made pastries to eat and coke to drink. 'It's like I'm having a dog.' She thought while watching him playing Halo 4 like a child while eating and soiling his shirt with chocolate.  
"How come you didn't decorate your tree already?" he asked after an hour of playing. "I have to finish this first.", "Huh… okay. And by the way, pastries are great.", "Thank you. Do you want more?" He nodded his head while smiling happily and went to play games after Beth gave him more pastries to eat.  
"Beth…" Ciel suddenly appeared behind her and put his head on her shoulder. "Oh, my God, what now?" Beth asked, almost yelling, and moved his head away. "Do you have any movies to watch?" After a long sigh she walked to the living room and opened a drawer under the TV and told Ciel to choose. Then she continued to decorate her cake.

After the whole day of working on food and sweets, cleaning the apartment and dealing with Ciel, Beth could finally decorate her tree. As she entered the living room, she found Ciel sleeping on the couch, snoring and drooling. "For fuck's sake Ciel, wake up." Beth stood in front of him, holding hands on her hips. Ciel didn't seem to flinch. "Wake up." She continued and poked him in the ribs. "Wake up…" After that failed try, she knocked him on the floor, but he was still sleeping. 'That's it.' She thought and grabbed his clothes on his nape and started dragging him through the apartment to Sebastian's door where she rang, still holding Ciel. "I told you to stop ringing, it's open." Beth heard him saying. 'I guess he's thinking it's Ciel.' She rang once again and waited. Finally, he opened the door. A wonderful smell of food reached Beth's nostrils and she almost forgot why she was there. "Yeah, hi. Sorry for the intrusion, but here's Ciel. He fell asleep and I couldn't wake him up. But I'm 80% sure he's alive." She said and put Ciel on the floor. "You gave him sweets, right?" Sebastian asked and grinned. Beth looked from Sebastian to Ciel and then again to Sebastian. "Yeah. Why?", "Well, he kind of falls into a coma after eating too many sweets, but he's alright the next day.", "Really?", "Yes, it's been like that since the early days.", "Huh… good to know.", "Mhm. Well, thank you for babysitting him. I think I should start paying you." He jokingly said while putting Ciel onto his shoulder. Beth snorted at his statement. "Oh, and, the phone's not at my place." Sebastian looked at her with a confused face, but then understood what she was talking about. "Oh, that. It's alright, I already bought him a new one.", "Okay then. Happy holidays.", "Thanks, to you, too." Beth smiled and nodded her head and quickly went to her home. 'Happy holidays? You're an idiot, Beth.'

Now that Beth finally had some peace, she could decorate her tree. It was settled in the corner of the living room, between the couch and armchair, almost reaching the ceiling. When it was done, decorated with colorful lamps and ornaments, Beth put the presents under it and went to take a bath.

The next day when Beth was watching TV, someone rang and she presumed it was Ciel. But when she opened the door there was only Sebastian, with no Ciel around. "Oh, hi." Beth said, sounding dumbfounded, but he didn't say anything, he was just looking at her. Just when Beth was about to say something, he slowly moved forward to her. She didn't even realize that she was getting into her apartment until her back met the wall. Sebastian was still looking at her and locked the door without moving his eyes from Beth.  
She started to get little anxious, it got really weird. He was getting closer to her and Beth didn't move anymore. Then he took her wrists and gently placed them on the wall next to her. Beth tried to release them from his grip, but it was tight. "What are…" she started talking, but his lips on hers stopped her. She widened her eyes and tried harder to release herself, but gave up when his tongue met hers. Her knees became weak because of the warm and wet feeling. She felt he let go of her hand and slowly started touching her back and waist, little by little lifting her shirt and finally taking it off and tossing somewhere. Beth felt he was pushing her to walk and soon after they were lying on her bed which seemed to appear out of nowhere.  
He started kissing her delicate neck as she was pulling his shirt to come off. Their pants were next, as same as their underwear. He was above her again and Beth felt him adjusting his erection. After a second of not moving, he entered her slowly and she moaned and grabbed her sheets while shutting her eyes. It was a weird feeling to have something inside you. Sebastian started moving and thrusting while Beth's hand was going over his defined muscles on his arm and back, feeling as they were straining by every thrust he made.  
He was moving faster and Beth put her legs around his hips to get him closer. He raised her hips to make it easier to thrust in while Beth was moaning and gasping. "Se…"

Beth suddenly woke up and sat in her tub while breathing rapidly. "What the fuck?" she asked after calming down a little. "Oh, my God. What the actual fuck?"

After she woke up from that dream, Beth showered with a cold water to clear her thoughts and dried with the towels. When she put on her pajamas and lay in her bed, she couldn't sleep. The dream had a big effect on her psyche, so she made a cup of cocoa and ate her pastries while watching a Christmas movie on the TV. She wasn't sleepy even after 3 hours. Luckily, Netflix was there to keep her company. Beth slowly met the light of the next day, sitting on the couch, surrounded by the light of the TV and Christmas tree.

* * *

"Merry Christmas." Beth wished to Deb's parents when she came to the lunch and handed them a bag with their presents. "Beth, dear, you really didn't have to." Deb's mom, Diane, told her after hugging her. Deb's parents were typical American family. Wealthy and pleasant to hang out with. Beth never actually heard Deb complaining or talking bad about them. They were a perfect family idyll.  
Beth and Deb sat at the table in the dining room while Deb's dad, Peter, was helping his wife in the kitchen. "So, did you solve problems with Claude?" Beth asked in a quieter tone.  
"Ah… kind of." Deb simply said and Beth had to force her to talk. "He called me and I didn't answer at the moment, just as you said, but after 4 or 5 ringing. He asked me where was I for so long and I said I had more important things to do than hang around my phone and answer his calls." After Beth nodded her head, Deb continued. "He went quiet and seemed astonished, but cleared his throat and asked me if I was free that night. I said no because I really wasn't and he said never mind then. I coldly asked if he needed anything else on which he said he was totally free and really bored. 'And?' I asked and calmly waited for his answer. 'I just thought you could come over and…yeah.' He said and it was really hard for me not to smile. I had to refuse him and I hung up. Can you imagine? I hung up."  
Deb happily said while smiling like an idiot. "Is that it?", "No, listen to this. The next day he called me again and, of course, I didn't answer immediately. He seemed a little happier, but didn't ask me where was I. The first question was how was I. Then what am I doing and the rest was a little of chit-chat and the last one was if I was free. I said no, just to torture him. He sounded disappointed, but still continued to talk with me. Somewhere in the middle I told him that I needed to go and greeted him, hanging up first.", "Well, aren't you advancing?", "I know, right? Oh, and, he called me this morning to wish me Merry Christmas. Since I was still in bed, my voice was hoarse. And then, listen to this, he told me my voice sounds very hot and that he'd like to hear it every morning." Deb finished and almost yelped from happiness. "Okay, wow, that escalated quickly." Beth jokingly said and laughed at Deb's happy state.

They couldn't talk about Claude at the table because her parents still didn't know about him, but Deb said they'll soon find out. The lunch went well with a lot of talking and laughing. After lunch they drank coffee and ate Diane's cakes.  
Just when the night came, Beth went home, holding a present bag that Diane gave her. The snow was slowly falling, staying on Beth's woolen cap and hair which reached all the way to her waist. She decided to take the longer way home, through the center, to see bright lights of New York. Actually, Christmas bright lights. New York is famous as the city that never sleeps. She loved to see benches and roads covered in snow and the lamps with yellow lights gave that tiny warm feeling in your heart. All the way home, Beth sang 'Let it snow' by Dean Martin. For that little time, she was happy and forgot everything else.

* * *

When she got to her floor, she started sneezing like crazy. Her keys and the bag fell down, but she was still sneezing. 'This is getting ridiculous.' She thought and leaned on the wall, to 'take a breath' from all the effort she made. That is why she hated cold and winter.  
After she blew out her nose, she picked her stuff and unlocked her apartment. Just when she warmed up a little, her guests arrived. Well, Ciel and Sebastian, she guessed. 'Oh, God… I can't do this.' She thought while dragging her feet to the door. "Merry Christmas!" Ciel yelled and practically jumped on her, hugging her and almost knocking her down. "Merry Christmas to you, too. Now get off." She said and pushed him from her, feeling a new wave of sneezing coming. Sebastian was calmly waiting his turn on the door. She got a little upset, but they shook hands. And it started. 3 times in a row, she sneezed intensely and loudly. "Come in." she managed to say in the breaks. They seemed to hesitate. "You don't look quite…", "Nah, I just got back from outside. It's got to be the cold and snow." They insecurely nodded their heads and got in.  
Beth put the pastries and drinks on the table and went to make coffee. "We thought we heard you sneezing, but it sounded more like an old man, so we crossed that thought. But now…", "Yeah, I know. I sound like a monster. It's always been like that." She told them from the kitchen. After she poured the coffee into the cups and put them on the plate, she carried it to the table. First one got to Ciel and the other halfway to Sebastian because it started shaking on the plate. Beth's eyes closed instinctively because of the upcoming sneeze. She thought it was going to spill, but then felt warm hands holding the plate. "Thank you." She quickly said to Sebastian and turned to side to sneeze. "Excuse me."  
Beth said and rushed to bathroom to wash her face with hot water and blow her nose again. After drying her face, she went back to the table and sighed. Ciel was eating cake and Sebastian was drinking coffee. Maybe she should avoid looking at him today. "Do you need sugar?" she asked and looked at them. 'God dammit, stop looking at him.', "No, it's good." They said in unison. 'Brothers.' She thought and smiled.  
"Oh, my God. Beth." Ciel suddenly said. "What?", "Do you have monopoly? I haven't played it in ages.", "Me neither." She said and thought about where she put it. "Everyone okay with it?" she asked, but it was mostly addressed to Sebastian. "Sure.", "But this is an older one, with no credit cards. Deal with it." She said and went to the closet in the hall and dug up the box. "Here it is."  
They agreed they'd play on the floor, because it's more spacious than the table. "Ciel, don't cry if you lose." Beth sarcastically said and laughed at her own statement. "The last time he cried was 5 years ago." Sebastian said and Beth stopped laughing. "Seriously? I was only joking.", "They were mean and I didn't like it." Ciel defended himself while pouting. "You were the one that suggested it.", "Let's just play."

* * *

I'm just gonna leave this here...  
Sorry for not updating yesterday, I was really busy and all.

This is the longest one yet. Woo!


	11. Lets get hurt

Beth smirked while adjusting her glasses professionally. "Pay up, bitch." She said to Ciel when he came to her land and had to pay quite a price. "I hate this game. I give up.", "You're bankrupt, anyway.", "Whatever, I'm going to the toilet." When Ciel left, Beth was alone with Sebastian. She tried really hard not to look at him during the game and even harder now. "So, he really cried over the game?" Beth could at least talk with him. "Yeah, company and I hid some of his money from him when he didn't look and then he got upset. Soon after he lost and blamed us, saying that we took his money. We were deadly serious and told him to stop acting like a child. And then he ran to his room." After Sebastian finished the story, Beth looked at him with raised brow. "And you call yourself mature?" she asked and he narrowed his eyes. "No, not quite." Beth laughed and shook her head. "Well, I'm not surprised.", "Really? I don't hear that a lot.", "Never mind." He replied after he got a questioning look from her.

Predictably, Beth lost, she was expecting it. After monopoly, Ciel wanted to watch a movie and they had to say yes. Beth gave them her collections of DVDs and prepared snacks. "Have you decided?" she asked and sat on the couch. "I want Ice Age.", "Oh, come on." Beth and Sebastian said in unison and shook their heads. "Okay… Why don't you choose something then? Ciel talked to Sebastian, "I don't know… " Beth looked at them argue and sighed. "Give it to me." She said and randomly chose one without looking at it and put it in the player. When they all settled, the movie started. It turned out to be 'Jack and Jill'. "Is it a good movie?", "Shut up and watch."

No one seemed disappointed by the movie because they were all laughing. Beth almost fell asleep, but who could sleep when you have two men laughing like idiots next to you? But wasn't it weird enough that they were there, hanging out with Beth like good old friends? Yeah…  
After the movie, Sebastian saw that Beth was tired and told Ciel they were going home. "Wait." Beth stopped them before they left and gave them their presents. "You better use it, pipsqueak." She told to Ciel and gave him a death glare. "What is it?" Ciel asked with an expression of a 2-year-old kid. "You'll see.", "And yours is not as cool as his, but it'll serve." Beth then said to Sebastian. "Oh, uhm, thank you. You didn't have to." He thanked her and smiled. "But we also have something for you." Ciel interrupted and winked at her while walking to the door. Beth looked at his way with a horrified face on. "Yeah, he does that a lot." A second after, Beth heard a rustling sound coming closer to them and Ciel appeared, carrying a big object wrapped in paper. "Oh, my God…" Beth muffled with a hand over her mouth. "What the fuck did you…", "You'll see." Ciel said imitating her and they started leaving. "Thank you!" She yelled after them and closed the door.

Beth would never admit it, but she felt happy and excited because of this little gesture of theirs. Although it wasn't little… When she removed the paper, she saw a huge teddy-bear. It was white and had a blue ribbon around his neck, not to mentions he was fluffy. In his… claws? Yeah, in his claws he held a cup on which wrote 'The world's best neighbor.' "Cute as fuck, holy Jesus." Beth said and felt something warm around her heart.

* * *

"Elizabeth Brant?", "Yes?", "Sign here, please.", "Okay, what is this?", "I don't know, I just deliver." The delivery guy brought her a package and didn't seem he was in a good mood. It was still snowing like crazy outside and no one normal wanted to be out in this blizzard. "Thank you." The guy muttered and went to the elevator from which Ciel just got out. "Oh, Beth hey." He cheerfully said and went to hug her, but she stopped him. "Don't even dare." He was covered in snow. "What were you doing outside?", "Emily and I went to the date.", "Really? How was it?" That actually interested Beth. "She's not that bad when you meet her.", "Where were you been?", "At the cinema and café. Then we were walking slowly on the streets.", "What? In this snow?", "Yeah, it's actually pretty nice.", 'Idiots.', "That's nice.", "Yeah. Oh, and by the way, thank you so much for the PS4. I love it!", "Good, I'm glad." She said and smiled. "Wait, your name is Elizabeth?" Ciel asked while looking at her name on the package in her hands. "Uhm, yeah. What did you think?", "I thought it was just Beth.", "Nope.", "Well, see you later, Elizabeth." He said and smirked. "Don't start with that.", "With what, Elizabeth?", "Goodbye." She said and closed the door.  
The package she got was a new HP laptop from the company. "Okay, wow. Surprise after surprise." She immediately moved everything from the old to the new one. "It really is a nice Christmas this year."

Since she got a new laptop, Beth didn't separate from it. One night she was up until 4 a.m. and then realized how tired she actually was and went to sleep. The next day she had to wake up a little earlier to go shopping. She bet it'll be crowded on the New Year's Eve.  
She dragged herself from her bed to the kitchen to drink some cold water because it felt like a desert in her mouth. A sudden bell ring shocked her and the glass from her hand fell to the floor and shattered to pieces. "Aaahhh, just great." Beth muttered and moved forward, only to step on a big and a few smaller pieces of glass. She sat on the floor and took a few deep breaths, clenching her fists. The bell repeated. "Who is it?" she shouted to the door, unable to get up. "Sebastian.", "Please come in." Beth heard the door open and patiently waited on the kitchen floor. "In the kitchen." She gave him a small instructions of her whereabouts. He froze when he saw her on the floor with a bloody foot. "You got any tweezers?"

"Hold still.", "I can't, it's big.", "That is why you need to hold still.", "It hurts.", "I know.", "As if. Ow! Can't you be a little gentler?", "I'm trying to get it out as sooner as possible.", "Don't blame me if you get a kick in the face.", "Right.", "I'm serio- OW! God dammit!", "Just a moment… Here", "Oh, thank God.", "But you still got 4 more of them.", "This never happened to me before.", "There's first time for everything.", "Mhm.", "I didn't know you're such a wimp.", "… Shut up."  
Ciel listened to Sebastian's and Beth's conversation while watching him removing the glass out of her foot. If he only listened to them, he'd thought of something really different. While Sebastian was removing the rest, Beth didn't make a sound. Not even when he was disinfecting the wounds. Finally, he wrapped the bandages. "All done.", "Thank you very much." Beth stood up and almost screamed. "I think you should rest for a while.", "Yeah. Anyway, you needed something?"

* * *

Yeah, you waited 3 days for this. Blargh.


	12. Happy' New Year

„What?" Beth angrily asked with a hoarse voice her best friend Debbie over the phone. "…Happy New Year. And it's good to hear you, too, you know?" Deb answered with an offended voice. "Thank you. I'm sorry, but it's not a good day today. For me.", "I assumed, since you didn't answer on my message.", "I just can't.", "You can't answer or what?", "I can't get out of the bed. I barely answered your call.", "You're sick? Want me to come over?", "No, no. I'll be fine tomorrow, don't worry.", "But what if…", "I have to hang up now, because I think I'll fall asleep. Say hi to your mom and dad.", "I'm not at home, but I will. Get well soon.", "Yeah, yeah, bye.", "Love you." Right after Deb said the last words, Beth touched the red phone icon on her Android and ended the call. She didn't bother to roll from the middle of her king sized bed to the night table, so she just left the phone under the pillow. It sure was great celebrating the New Year in your bed while watching the lights from the fireworks through the blinds.  
Sebastian and Ciel kindly offered her to celebrate the New Year with them; they must have realized how much of a loner she was. Pathetic. Beth even considered of accepting the offer, but got an awful flu. Her temperature was 102°F and she couldn't move a muscle. She was sleeping the whole day until Deb called and woke her up. Her foot hurt, she was hot, thirsty, hungry and desperately needed a shower, but all she could do was sleep. That was a bad side of living and being alone. She couldn't call Deb again, because she was probably with Claude, celebrating. Or most likely, having sex. 'Do not want to think about it.'

* * *

'Not again…' Beth thought and stared at the window of her room, seeing only black sky while someone rang on her door, not giving up. It only passed a few minutes since she fell asleep, but there was no way she's going to open the door. First, she couldn't. Second, she didn't want to. Then, her phone started ringing and Beth threw a glance at the screen. 'Deb.', "H'llo?" Beth lazily answered. "Why aren't you opening the door? I've rung for the past 5 minutes. Are you even at home?", "That's you? Why did you come, aren't you with Claude?", "What are you talking about? We've been together for a New Year, that doesn't mean we have to hang around every day.", "What?", "What?", "I don't understand.", "My God, just open the door.", "I think they're unlocked. By the way, I'm in my room." Beth said and hung up, waiting for Deb to come. Seconds after, Deb burst into the room, only to find Beth naked on the bed and her room in a mess. "What in the world are you doing?" Deb asked with a confused face. "I'm sleeping… well, trying to sleep, but _someone_", she pointed out, "doesn't let me. And why did you come? I said that you don't have to." Beth lazily said while laying on her stomach with closed eyes. "Yeah, you said that two days ago." Deb annoyingly answered while picking the blanket from the floor and covering Beth. That last sentence made Beth open her eyes. "What do you mean two days ago?", "Beth, you do know it's January 3rd today, right?" When Beth didn't answer, Deb panicked a little. "Beth?", "Y-yeah, right. Sorry, I got confused… Please bring me glass of water. I'm really thirsty." Beth tried to change the subject, although she was thirty as hell. She couldn't believe it… 2 days? She's been sleeping for 2 days? Is that even possible? It's either that or she passed out. Yeah, that'd be more logical. But still… "Here's your water." Deb quickly came back with the glass of water and a worried face on. "Yeah, I'll need help with this…" Beth awkwardly said when she couldn't hold the glass, or even sit straight. "Of course." Deb carefully helped her friend to drink water and removed hair from her face not to bother her in the process. "Beth, you're hot.", "You hitting on me? Well, I'm not into women, but you'll do fine." Beth jokingly said while smiling. "I'm serious, you have a fever." She didn't seem to be struck by Beth's joke and remained serious. "Do you have any aspirin?", "Yeah, I think it's in the kitchen, in one of the drawers.", "Honestly, for you to get sick…", "Not my style, I know."

* * *

Beth got well again in three days, thanks to Deb's care for her. She almost threw up from all those teas, four cups in an hour. Torture, really. She also had to listen about Claude while she was awake which was, luckily, very rarely. Deb wasn't that good of a cook and her cooking skills could be compared to those of a 10-year-old kid. But, Beth wasn't in a state to complain. It was either to eat that, or stay hungry.  
While being there and taking care of Beth, Deb slept on the couch so she doesn't infect from her. There wasn't much to clean, so she watched TV, talked to Beth or phoned Claude.

And now that Beth could work on her own again, she kindly sent Deb home and sighed in relief when she was alone again. The first thing she did was cooking. And eating the hell out of it. Then a nice hot shower to relax her a little. She's never been more thankful to have clean and nice smelling hair. While looking out of the window she noticed the snow was gone and the temperature outside seemed a little higher than usual. Awfully odd.

* * *

While walking through the town after dealing with some shitholes from the HR department, Beth stopped next to the cinema and looked at the poster of a new cartoon, Frozen. She had time and she also heard good comments on it. 'Fuck it.' She thought while going inside and buying ticket. The hall was full, Beth barely managed to find the seat. With some sort of luck she came just in time the movie started. It seemed the day was good for her.  
Funny scenes from the movie caused the whole hall to laugh, but there were some laughs Beth couldn't ignore. Too familiar and too annoying. She didn't want to turn around to find out because… there is no reason for something or someone to ruin her day.  
As the movie finished and everyone were going out, someone covered Beth's eyes. "Who…" she started panicking, but the stair onto which she tripped stopped her. As she was falling, so was the person behind her. Luckily, a guy in front of Beth sort of helped her from not falling just by appearing there while the person behind her fell down. "I told you not to do it."

Beth "playfully" kicked Ciel in the stomach once they were outside. "You better don't do that again." She warned him as he was holding a hand over his stomach. "Sorry, but when we realized it was you, I had to do it.", "Yeah, I thought I heard your laughs." Beth stated while looking from Sebastian to Ciel. "Same here." Beth just shook her head and headed to her apartment. Just as she thought she got rid of them, two voices, one on each side of her head started singing: "Do you want to build a snowman?", "Oh, my God."

* * *

Well, hello. Long time, no read.  
I'm... kind of sorry for not updating a week and then again I'm not because I had to work in a restaurant and help at home which takes some time.  
Honestly, I'm busier over holidays than school. Not cool.  
Also, now that I'm done with work, I'll try to update more often, every other day, like before.  
And I'm not quite sure when 'Frozen' came out, so forgive me and bare with it.


	13. The Blizzard

„Hey, what is that?" Beth asked after seeing something small moving in the shadow, next to the entrance door of their building. "Probably a rat or something." Ciel was completely uninterested. "Meow." The creature made a sound on which Beth and Sebastian immediately came closer to it. A small, black kitten came to them, purring loudly. "It's so cute and fat and fluffy. And she has one white paw." Beth almost melted while caressing it and Sebastian seemed thrilled. "Ciel, look." With a wide smile, Beth grabbed the kitten and showed it to Ciel. "Get it away from me." He quickly said while backing away. "Why?", "I'm argic…" *sneeze*, "t…" *sneeze*, "cas." *sneeze*  
"He's allergic to cats." Sebastian simplified to Beth when she stared at Ciel. "Oh… is that so?" she wickedly smiled at them. "Yeah, I chased him with one at home.", "When you were kids?", "Actually, it was last year."  
Beth turned to side and burst out laughing.  
"What? Are you kidding me? Oh my God." She had to let the cat go and sit down on the ground they were standing on. The pictures of Sebastian running after Ciel while holding a cat wouldn't leave her head. Now, the problem was that Beth really didn't laugh like that for a very long time and she kind of forgot how it sounds. It was that kind of laugh when there is no sound, just air coming out with an enormous pain in the belly. "Believe me, it wasn't funny at all. Anyway, I'm going in." Ciel somehow angrily said and went into the building.  
"Don't worry, he's not angry." Sebastian said while sitting down next to Beth, holding the kitten. "Oh, I'm not worried. Don't get offended, but he's not that dear to me.", "I know. I mean, I can see that.", "How?", "Well, our parents spoiled him too much when he was a kid. They're spoiling him now, too, but he always got what he wanted. Every toy, food, girl.", "What, and you didn't?" The question surprised him a little and then he smiled. "No, not that much. I guess they didn't love me as much as him. Ciel is younger and cuter, of course he'll be the favorite one.", "Aw, don't be like that. You can also be cute." Sebastian looked at her confused and smiled. "Anyway, since it's his habit, he gets angry when it's not like he imagined." The kitten in Sebastian's hands happily purred as he was petting it. "Then he really is spoiled. But I still don't get it how can you see he's not dear to me.", "You seem sort of annoyed with him and you're kind of cold.", "Ah, yes, he can be boring. It's like he's my younger brother.", "You're lucky he isn't." Beth snorted and leaned her head on her knees, looking at the street and passing cars. It was still kind of warm outside, almost felt like spring is coming. Overly suspicious.  
"By the way, how's your foot?" he suddenly asked. "Oh… it's so much better now, thanks to you… and my fast healing.", "I'm glad.", "Hi Glad, I'm Beth.", "You waited for this opportunity, didn't you?", "You have no idea." Beth happily smiled and started observing the street again.  
Their street was a little separated from the other streets in New York. It had a series of 6 blue, yellow and grey buildings; partly new, partly old, which were 20 feet apart from each others. It was almost an idyllic street with all those trees and neatly decorated parks with children's playground. It also had a walkway, together with a road for bicycles. In front of every building were parking lots. It was a little difficult in the winter 'cause of the cold and snow on the cars. You could forget for a moment you were living in New York.  
"Betsy!" an old lady suddenly got out and started yelling. The kitten, which was quietly enjoying the treatment, opened its eyes and walked to the old lady. "Oh Betsy, here you were.", "Good evening, Ms Rayten." Sebastian and Beth politely greeted their neighbor that lived on the first storey of the building. "Good evening." She quickly said and went back in with Betsy in her hands. As soon as she closed the door, Beth let out a loud sigh. "Holy shit, she scared me to death.", "I could say the same." Sebastian agreed with her. "It was like, 'Surprise motherfucker!', I mean, come on." They started laughing and slowly went inside.

* * *

"Beth?" she heard Brian calling for her in the math class. "Don't talk to me. I'm still mad at you." Beth answered without turning to him. "I already apologized.", "Don't care.", "Please.", "No.", "Come on.", "No. Jesus, you're annoying.", 'But not more than Ciel.', "Can you then give me a homewo- Thank you." He said when she threw her notebook at him.

"The guy on the weather forecast said there is a storm coming tomorrow.", "And you believe him?", "You don't?" Deb and Beth sat at their usual table in the school cafeteria, this time without Emily and Amy. "Of course I don't. We're not in Ice age.", "We might be again… Anyway, I won't be at school this Friday, I'm going with my parents at my grandma's in Chicago. She's sick. Or she's imagining she's sick.", "That's in two days, right?", "Yeah.", "That's great, bring me a Bulls' hat.", "As if.", "Kidding, just say hi to her."

* * *

Beth furiously watched as snow was falling in a speed of light, covering everything in a blink of eye. She should have trusted Deb, or at least watch forecast. Everyone left school, except maybe janitors or cleaners and her. She hoped that it'd stop anytime soon, but it didn't even after half an hour. There was 30 minutes on foot to her home and there weren't any taxis driving by, so she just had to deal with it. Also, her phone was at home.  
Luckily, she wore her Martens and winter coat, so she shouldn't complain. Just as she stepped on the snow, it reached the half of her lower leg. 'Fucking great.' She thought while walking through snow, holding her bag tightly to her.  
After 15 minutes of her journey, a black BMW stopped next to her and honked. 'Is he making fun of me?' she thought, refusing to look at its way. When he didn't stop, she turned to him and almost showed him a middle finger, but calmed down after seeing Sebastian in the car. He was showing with his head to her to come in. "Thank you." She said with a relief while panting rapidly.  
"I meant to take you before, but you were gone when I got out of the school.", "You were staying late?", "Yeah. Why didn't you call a cab or something?", "I left my phone at home. Very smart of me, I know.", "Yeah, not gonna comment on that."  
The inside of the car was nice. Black, of course, with a leather seats. "Sorry I messed your car.", "Not a problem, I'm no better." After 5 minutes of driving, they finally got home. Beth didn't fail to notice he was going a different path, it was probably shorter than the one she was using. He also didn't park on the parking lots, but drove a little further to some small building that looked like a garage from outside. Then the door opened and he got in.  
"So, this is like your own garage?", "Yeah, kind of. I asked for one when buying the apartment." He got out and Beth reached to put off the seat belt, but it stuck. A small cloth of her coat stuck in the buckle and she was powerless here. Second after, her door opened and she heard Sebastian asking what was wrong. "I might have a problem." Beth sheepishly said while turning her head to him.  
It was a kind of awkward situation. Beth was pulling like crazy, while he was on the other side, pulling as well, a few inches separating them. "Why don't you let me cut it?", "You're not going to cut your clothes, I'm not letting you.", "But I can sew it back together.", "No.", "Fine, mother." She heard him snort and smiled a little.  
"Just a little more…" Indeed, they managed to get out a little of it out. With a deep breath and one last pull, Beth put her strength into it and… it ended badly.  
Well, the coat was out, that was good. But just as Beth pulled it out, her hand, with which she was holding the piece, hit Sebastian in the nose, causing it to drip blood. She could only widen her eyes and stare at him. "A-Are you okay?" he looked at his hand, now covered in blood, and then at her. For a few seconds, only the wind from outside could be heard until he started laughing.  
"I didn't know you were that strong.", "What are you talking about? Are you hurt?", "No, no, it's fine, it doesn't hurt.", "Seriously? It's not broken, is it?", "No, I'm telling you, it's fine. You don't have to worry."  
They got out of the car and he wiped the blood with a tissue. "To tell you the truth, you're the first woman that hit me. Ever.", "For real?", "For real.", "Well, it's an honor, then."

* * *

Ta-da.  
This is harder than I expected it to be. I officially apologize to the authors who don't update so fast and I'm sorry I got mad at them.  
Can't wait to finish this story and get on the second one.


	14. Stuck together

„No… no, no, no, no, no, no… NO! Fucking shit! Why now?" Beth was panicking in front of her door, unable to find the keys. They weren't in the coat, or in her pants. Not even in her bag, even though she put every single stuff out of it and yet it wasn't there. It wasn't enough that a car passed right in front of them, making the slush from the road end up on Beth and Sebastian. She still searched for the keys while the dirt dripped from her hair and clothes until she remembered she could call Mr. Johnson, the building's repairman.  
"Hello, Mr. Johnson?", "That's me. Who is it?", "This is Elizabeth Brant, Thompson's Street 59, you work here.", "I know where I work.", "Yeah, sorry. Anyway, it seems that I lost my keys. Is there a way for you to unlock the door for me, please?", "As if. There's no way I'll come over there from my home. Did you see the weather outside? It hasn't been like this since I was a kid.", "Mr. Johnson, please, I live here and don't have anywhere to go.", "Find a hotel. I'll come when the weather calms down." With those last words he ended the call, leaving Beth furiously looking at the screen. "That son of a bitch!" she yelled and threw her phone in the wall, causing it to break into 3 pieces. 'Find a hotel, he says. I would if my wallet wasn't inside, locked! It looks like it's gonna fall forever. Just great. Deb's not in town and there's no way for me to break that door.' With a long sigh she sat on the cold floor and leaned on the wall. 'I can just peacefully die here.'

* * *

"Beth? Beth?" Beth heard through sleep someone calling for her and gently shaking her shoulders. As she opened her eyes and looked a pair of red eyes, she reflexively moved away and hit her head in the edge of the wall. "Ow… What are you doing here?" Beth asked while rubbing the hit place on her head. "I should be asking you the same question. What happened? What are _you_ doing here?" Sebastian asked while crouching to be in the same height level as her. Beth yawned and rubbed her eyes. "I lost my keys and Mr. Johnson doesn't want to come to unlock the door until the weather calms down. And also, the spare one is inside."  
"You dummy. You could have asked me.", "What, you have the spare one?" he laughed at her question and helped her stand up. "No, you can wait at my place. Knowing Mr. Johnson, he won't come until tomorrow." Beth's face got a little frightened. "W-what do you mean tomorrow?", "Well, once I asked him to repair my sink and he didn't come for a week." Beth's brow started twitching in anger. 'That son of a bitch…', "I don't want to bug you…" Beth started talking, but got interrupted by a sudden push on her back. "Stop talking nonsense, get in." he said with a smile while taking her bag from the floor. 'Oh, Jesus…'

As Beth was taking her wet shoes off in the hall, Sebastian went somewhere and soon came back, carrying something in his hands, just as Beth hung her coat. "Here are some clothes for you. I don't think they'll be too big, but I don't have anything smaller." He quickly said and handed them to Beth. "Wha-", "I also don't have any 'girly' shampoos, so just use these." He showed at the shelf full of shampoos. "Ciel brought his and didn't take them with him, just so you don't think I'm a shampoo freak. Also, here are towels. Are two enough for you?" as he was talking and explaining things, Beth could just follow his movements and nod her head. "Okay, what else… Uhm, a comb… and…", "Thank you, I don't need anything else." Beth said and smiled, leaving the given stuff on the counter.  
When he got out, she sighed and looked at her reflection in the mirror. No wonder Sebastian was persistent for her to have shower. She was dirty on the face and the hair, which was still wet from the slush, just as her pants, socks and shirt. After she dressed down and neatly put her clothes on the pile, she got in the shower cabin, not waiting for water to become colder. She already got used to shower with boiling water.  
Beth took a glance at the shampoo shelf. The bottles were all dark-blue or black, with 'for men' etiquette. 'Obviously, Beth.'  
Soon, the bathroom was filled with steam from the hot water and she got out, wrapping the towel around her hair and drying her body.

"This is… huge." Beth said after putting Sebastian's sweatpants and T-shirt on. Luckily, she could tie the sweatpants, so they didn't fall. But the T-shirt was at least three sizes too big on her. The sleeves reached her elbows and the rest of it reached her thighs. 'Is he really that big? And he even said he didn't have anything smaller. Holy Jesus…'  
After drying and combing her hair, she got out of the bathroom, expecting for the temperature to be drastic lower, but it wasn't. It was almost as same as in the bathroom. Beth followed the sound of plates hitting the table and she found herself in the living room, combined with the dining room.  
Sebastian was setting the table for dinner and turned to her when she came in. "I think it's a little too big, after all…" Beth insecurely said while looking at him. "A-are you alright? Your nose is still bleeding…" she asked when the blood started dripping from his nose once again. He rushed to bathroom, probably to wash the blood and Beth just shrugged with her shoulders and looked out of the window. The snow was still falling and it was dark, so Mr. Johnson definitely won't come today.  
"Put this on." Sebastian suddenly said while putting a pair of slippers in front of her. "These are also the smallest.", "In what way is that small? It's like two boxes." Beth said in surprise after seeing the slippers. What size do you wear, anyway?", "11 and 1/2." Beth just blinked and went to sit down, dragging her feet in overly sized slippers. "I feel like a kid in this."  
Sebastian started putting food on the table and the smell made Beth's stomach growl, quietly.

After dinner Sebastian made coffee and they slowly drank it while sitting on the couch and watching news. On every channel were news about the horrible weather that suddenly came and accidents that the weather caused. "…The temperatures will be down to -4°F with the continuing storm…" Beth almost froze when she heard about the temperature and snow. It practically meant that she was stuck in here with Sebastian until Mr. Son Of A Bitch decides to come. "Well, this sucks…" Sebastian suddenly said, with his head leaned on the couch.  
'Okay, I'll admit it, he looks good in that position.'  
"You want to watch movies?" he asked and stretched while the cracking noises echoed through the apartment. "Uhm… sure." He nodded and started listing through the channels. 'Were his arms always that muscular?' Beth asked herself after studying his arms. The T-shirt he was wearing looked almost small on him. 'Hot damn.'

After 5 minutes of listing, asking 'What about this one?' and answering 'I was fine with the last one, too.', Beth, almost angrily, said:"Just leave on this one.", "This one? Or this one?" Sebastian teased her while smiling and changing channels. Beth sighed and leaned on the couch as well. "I don't even care anymore.", "Right, right. Here, I'll leave this one." He finally said and put the remote down. Not even 10 minutes passed when he started. "Are you hungry?", "We just ate.", "So?", "… Yeah, you have a point there.", "I know, I know…" he said with a smile while passing with his hand through his hair. "Are you thirsty?", "Yes." Beth simply said because even if she said no, he'd persuade her to drink, somehow.  
After he went to kitchen, Beth was partly watching the movie and partly him, because he was still asking questions. But after seeing his defined muscle texture under his shirt when he was reaching the bowls from the top shelf, she decided to stick to the movie.  
"Is it tense? What happened?" he suddenly showed up, carrying snacks and bottles in his hands. "Nah, just some torturing scenes.", "So, it is a horror movie.", "If you insist on calling it like that.", "Do you like horrors?", "Pretty much. You?", "Likewise."  
In the middle of the movie, after they ate and drank everything, Beth fell asleep in the corner of the couch.

* * *

Beth rubbed her eyes when hard-rock music started playing near her. She knew that it was her alarm clock, every day at 7 am. When she put her glasses on and turned the alarm off, it took her a while to realize that she wasn't in her bed or in her room. She was overly hot so she uncovered herself. Two winter blankets and a quilt. 'That man is insane…'  
She was still in the clothes from yesterday, thank God, so she got out of the room and went to the living room, yawning like crazy. Sebastian wasn't there nor in the kitchen, so she assumed he was in the bathroom.  
Her assumptions seemed right when he came in the living room with wet hair and a towel around his neck. "Oh… good morning." He said surprisingly. "'Morning…" Beth said and yawned once again. "Did you not get enough sleep?" Sebastian asked while going to the kitchen and Beth sat at the table. "I did… I just need a moment to come round.", "Huh. I thought you were going to sleep until the afternoon.", "Please, I don't remember the last time I slept that long.", "Me neither.", "And what is wrong with you? I was almost cooked while sleeping.", "You mean you were hot?", "Yes.", "Well, you did say you were cold, so I put extra blankets.", "Jesus… Also, did you moved me to bed?", "Yeah, I can't let a guest sleeping on the couch. Here's your coffee. Black, no sugar, no milk.", "Thank you." Beth said while smiling because he already knew what coffee she drank. 'What is so good about that, idiot?'

* * *

And here we are.  
I apologize, but I really don't know how to finish chapters. Or anything else. I'm just not good at that.

Also, should I write more Sebastian's POV?  
Yeah, I only wrote it once or twice, but still...


	15. Ideal life

„I… can't reach…", „Come on, just a little more.", „I can see that, thank you."  
Beth sarcastically said while trying to reach green field with her left leg.  
Sebastian recommended playing Twister out of the blue and it seemed as a good idea to Beth. But after losing balance 6 times, it got quite on her nerves.  
"Ah, finally." She said after stretching her foot, barely touching the green circle. "Left hand, yellow."  
"Again? It's not fair. Why do you get the easy ones?" Beth complained when Sebastian simply moved his hand from one yellow circle to another. "I guess I'm lucky.", "Tch.", "Left foot, blue.", "All right, I can deal with that…"  
The T-shirt Beth was wearing slowly started to slip down to her upper-body because of the position she was in. As if she was doing push ups. Also, if she raised her head, she could have a perfect view of Sebastian's crotch. 'Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!' she repeated in her head so she could move.  
'Well, that is a defect of playing Twister, after all…'  
"Right hand, blue." He just stretched his arm. "This is totally unfair." Beth said with jealousy in her eyes. "What is?" Sebastian gave her questionable look over his shoulder. "I have to spit blood just to move my leg, while you just move a finger. Your arm must be as long as this panel…" Sebastian chuckled and spun the arrow. "I know, I know. That's why no one wanted to play with me. Left foot, green."  
Beth was slightly in shock after hearing that. It was kind of sad. "Wha… R-really?", "No, just kidding." he simply said and smiled. 'This guy…' "Yeah, no comments." Just an inch before touching the color green, sharp pain went from her foot to her spine. "Cramp in my leg! Cramp in my leg!" she shouted and fell on the floor, biting her fist and hitting the floor with the other. Sebastian leaned over her with his hands on his knees and a confused look. "You okay?" Beth shut her eyes and shook her head. 'Calm down, Beth. He'll think you're even bigger wimp than a kid. Wait… Why do I even care?'  
She took a deep breath and sat up, hoping that it would disappear soon. "Don't touch it." She quickly said to him, seeing he's moving his hand to her foot. "Don't worry, it'll be fine.", "Don't-" she started, thinking how much it'd hurt, but it didn't. In fact, pain was gone. "How did you… Just what in... What?" Beth was confused. No, stunned would be better description. "Ah, just a little trick I learned in… Uh, never mind." Sebastian stopped talking and the look on his face changed from neutral to slightly pissed off. "Where?", "It doesn't matter.", "Uhm, well, thank you."

* * *

"You lack fitness." Sebastian said while dragging the table back to its place in the middle of the carpet. "Y-Yeah… I never did great at sports, too." Beth awkwardly said while looking aside. "That's alright, I was never first, too. I think it was second or third place, most of the time." 'H-Hey, is that supposed to cheer me up?' "Was your school competitive one?", "Yeah, we were always first at nationals.", "Really? What were you playing?", "Basketball." 'Whoa…' "That sounds great. You're suitable for basketball."  
Sebastian raised his head from the couch. "Suitable? In what way?" he curiously asked. 'Oh, crap. Beth, you talk too much.' "Y-You know… You're tall and… your wingspan is large…" Beth started stuttering and her ears felt a little hot. "Ah, yes, those were the main reasons father enrolled me in the club in middle school.", "Middle school? How tall were you?", "Very." He answered with a chuckle.

* * *

"Do you have anything to do? I'll only get fat doing nothing." Beth asked Sebastian, who was in the kitchen making lunch. "Well, you could put on a little weight…", "What did you say?", "Do you like crosswords?", "Uh, yeah." 'I guess.' "There are some under the table.", "'Kay."

* * *

After they ate and Beth solved about 9 crosswords, Sebastian went to pick the dried clothes from the basement while Beth was looking through the window. Cars were covered in snow and people were cleaning snow from the streets. Even though the snow wasn't falling as hard as before, the wind was blowing and Mr. Johnson still didn't come. She really needed her laptop. The battery on her phone died and Sebastian didn't have the same charger. She couldn't hear Deb or at least text her, new project to make waited for her, as well as dirty apartment. All within 20 feet.

* * *

"Okay, bad news!" Sebastian shouted from the hall. "What is it?" Beth asked, prepared for the worst. "Well…" he started while putting the basket with the laundry down and then unfolding a shirt. "I washed and dried your clothes, but… it kind of shrunk." He had an apologetic look on his face while holding Beth's shirt which now looked like it was for a 10-year-old girl. "How?", "It may be too high temperature. I don't know, sorry." Beth sighed and smiled. "It's alright." 'I'll just have to wear his clothes, then.'

* * *

For dinner, Sebastian was making pancakes. Then came in Beth who wanted a glass of water and then came out Sebastian with Beth following him, covered with riled eggs, ready to take a shower.  
After the shower and new, clean clothes on which was even bigger than the last one, Beth came in the living room and quickly sat on the couch. "Was that revenge for shrinking your clothes?" Sebastian asked while bringing the plate with pancakes covered with chocolate and whipped cream. "It wasn't on purpose.", "Relax, I'm only joking."  
Their night was followed by watching comedies and eating. Ideal life.  
"Well, I'm off to sleep." Beth said when she felt she'll fall asleep any minute. And Sebastian probably wanted to sleep, too. "Good night.", "Thank you."  
Before she laid down, Beth took the sweatpants off because she never slept with them on, except unintentional moments. And she also removed blankets because it was warm in the room.

* * *

Somewhere around 3 a.m., Beth woke up, thirsty as hell, so she went to the kitchen to drink water. She didn't bother to put the glasses and slippers on. As if she was sneaking, Beth quietly walked to the kitchen, silently closing the door. Just as she walked into the kitchen, drowsy and non oriented, she felt a presence and bumped into it, screaming in process. "Beth? Geez, you scared me." Sebastian said after turning the lights on. Beth's heart was beating like crazy and her breathing was shallow. "That is my line. Why are you here in dark?", "Oh, I see where everything is. And you can't sleep?" Beth took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes. "No, I'm just thirsty." She didn't see well because everything was blurry to her, but it seemed as Sebastian was also drinking water. And his hair was a bit off. There were more locks of hair than usual. She didn't want to stare anymore because she found him looking at her, so she quickly drank 4 glasses of water and went back to bed. 'Awkward.'

* * *

Hm, so, maybe you didn't see, but in the previous chapter I updated a question. Nothing changed in the story, it was just a question.  
I'll write it again. Do you think I should write more Sebastian's POV? True, I wrote it only once or twice, but still...

Also, since I'm not at home from 14th August to... 22, I'll finish the story by 11-13th August, I promise.


	16. Finally

'That idiot… Why am I even friends with him?' Sebastian was referring to Claude in his thoughts. He actually called him to go out to the club. 'Fuck off' seemed as the right answer. First of all, it was 1 in the morning. Second, Sebastian just couldn't grasp how people can go out in this weather and cold. 'I must be getting old.'  
It's a good thing he didn't have to put up with that shit since college. Well, not as much as before.  
Anyway, ever since Claude called, Sebastian couldn't sleep. He was rolling over on his couch looking for the right position to fall asleep for two hours, but helplessly. At last, he got up to drink water. The bottle from the fridge could do fine.  
5 minutes after standing in the dark and slowly drinking while looking through the window, he heard the door opening and… nothing else. 'The hell?' Now, he's not the timid type of person, but this was a little creepy. Good thing the door didn't creak.  
In order to close them, he headed towards them. It ended walking into Beth with her screaming so he quickly turned on the lights. "Beth? Geez, you scared me." She was leaned on the wall, breathing shallowly. "That is my line. Why are you here in dark?" her voice was hoarse and her hair messy. "Oh, I see where everything is. And you can't sleep?" Beth rubbed her eyes and looked at him. With his heart skipping a beat, he noticed she wasn't wearing glasses. It was quite refreshing to see her eyes without anything in front of them. 'Where is this coming from?' Yes, his thoughts were a little disrupted, but it still wasn't like him to think like that. 'Whatever.' "No, I'm just thirsty." Beth looked away and took a glass from the strainer washer. With amusement in his eyes, Sebastian watched as Beth was filling the glass, with water overrunning the edge, probably because she didn't see well and then how she drank it in a hip.  
After the fourth glass, she put it in the sink and silently said 'bye'. As she was leaving, Sebastian only then noticed she wasn't wearing pants and how his shirt reached her knees. She really did look like a kid. Malnourished kid, that is. Even though she was tall and reached his eyes, she lacked meat. 'My God, you're sick.'  
With finishing his bottle, he filled her again with water, returned to fridge and then he went back to his spinning spot on the couch.

* * *

Even without her alarm, Beth woke up at 7. She didn't want to admit it, but she considered setting the alarm clock as some kind of luck for the next day. As if it'd bring her luck.  
She didn't want to get up yet, because the bed was too comfortable, but she couldn't lay in it anymore, either.  
With the last inhale from the bed, because it was the last time she slept in it, Beth put on glasses, pants and then straighten the linen. While bending over, she felt a huge pressure in her bladder, which made her curse her last night's drinking.  
She stopped herself before storming into the bathroom because she heard shower water running. 'Almost… Almost.'  
'What if I came in? Holy shit…' she slapped herself on both cheeks and sighed. 'Get a grip, Beth, you're a grown up woman, this is perfectly normal … No, I'm not and no, it isn't.' She couldn't stand anymore, so she sat on the chair and looked at the clock. 6:34 'The fuck? Why won't you let me sleep longer, you fucked up brain?'

* * *

Waking up at 5:30, Sebastian dressed up and went out to buy groceries for lunch and newspapers. At least he managed to sleep for 2 hours, if not less. Unlike some people who were hurrying to their jobs or wherever, he was walking pretty slowly. As much as possible though because his legs didn't help at all. At 6:20 he was already in his building.  
The good thing was that Mr. Johnson finally came and was unlocking Beth's door. "Good morning, Mr. Johnson." Sebastian politely greeted, even though he didn't like that grouchy geezer. "Oh, Sebastian. Can you give this key to that Eleanor girl when you see it, please? It's not broken, it works just fine." The geezer seemed quite happy while handing the key over and Sebastian didn't intend to ask why. "Elizabeth." Sebastian corrected him. "What?", "Her name is Elizabeth.", "Yeah, whatever. And don't forget." Mr. Johnson said and left, stomping loudly with his feet.  
Sebastian shook his head and went inside, left the purchased stuff in the kitchen and went to have a shower, while Beth is still asleep.  
'It's not a good time to masturbate now, is it?' he was discussing himself while standing in the cabin, looking at his erection with hot water pouring down his shoulders and back. 'Well, since it's already up…' he decided to give in to his physical desires.  
Just as he made three strokes, the sound of his bedroom door opening came to him and he immediately stopped, with his heart beating like crazy. He could hear the oversized slippers dragging over the tiles and then quickly disappearing. 'Almost… Almost.'  
With shaky hands, Sebastian dressed into new, fresh clothes and put a towel over his head. He hasn't been that nervous in a long time. 'No, really, when was the last time? Huh…'  
"Good morn-" Sebastian wanted to greet her, but got interrupted. "The school is canceled for a week!" Beth enthusiastically shouted and hit Sebastian's arm with newspapers. "Yes! I'll get to finish my job! Sorry!" she yelled and apologized for hitting him and then ran to the bathroom. Sebastian was surprised at first because he's never seen Beth so happy, but then just chuckled and went to make a coffee, completely forgetting about his nervousness.

Beth sighed in relief because now she didn't have to worry about finishing the project and studying at the same time. Her smile wasn't coming off her face.  
"You are that happy about cancelling the school?" Sebastian asked her while looking from the newspapers to her. Beth looked up from the crossword she was solving to meet Sebastian's eyes. "No, I don't give a damn about school. I just got more free time for my job." Sebastian stopped reading for a moment. "Wait, where do you work?" he knew that she worked, but didn't know where. "At home. As a computer programmer.", "How? Don't you need higher education for doing something like that?" Beth grinned and hit her temple with her index finger two times. "It's even that or mom's genes and homeschooling.", "Then you really need to love programming.", "You bet. What's the other word for happy? 4 letters.", "Try 'Beth'." Sebastian said after a short pause. "Smooth." Beth jokingly said and giggled. "No, really, what is it?", "I believe it's 'glad'.", "Thank you."  
Sebastian watched her solving crosswords like it was a child's play and then got back to reading.  
"By the way," Sebastian suddenly said after 5 minutes of silence, "Mr. Johnson came and left the key.", "He did? When?", "Somewhere around 6:25.", "Why didn't you tell me sooner?", "I forgot." After a few seconds of silence and blinking 3 times, Beth simply sighed. "You're staying for the breakfast, right?" Sebastian asked as if nothing just happened. "Well, I thought that going home and getting off your neck would be better.", "After breakfast." Beth put down her glasses and rubbed the root of her nose. It was starting to get into her habit. "Yeah, fine, whatever." She said and looked into his direction, not sure if looking into his eye, nose or lips. Her sight must've gotten worse.  
"So… when is the breakfast?" she just had to ask. "Same time as yesterday." Sebastian calmly said, but it seemed to Beth that she heard a bit of surprise in his voice. 'Oh, well.'  
After stretching and cracking her knuckles, Beth put the glasses on again and continued solving the crosswords.

* * *

Expect new one tomorrow. I will, too.


	17. Why now?

The first thing Beth did when entering her apartment was turning on the heating because it was cold compared to Sebastian's place. After breakfast with Sebastian, Beth picked her stuff and thanked him for putting up with her. He replied that it was fun with her on which Beth snorted and said 'Yeah, right.', but Sebastian was deadly serious. She thanked him once again and left, hoping that nothing happened in her apartment whilst she was absent.  
It didn't. But it was funny how exactly that morning she didn't have time to open the windows. 'Lucky.'  
After putting her phone to charge, she turned on the laptop and checked e-mail. New assignment to do, deadline was in two days. It required some harder work, but it should be done on time. 'No sleeping for you tonight.'  
She also got an e-mail from Deb, saying that they'll stay in Chicago until the roads are safe for driving again. Then a huge message after 'P.S.' written in Caps Lock about Beth's insolence, turning off her phone and other Deb's exaggerations. A simple 'sorry' from Beth with a smiley face solved everything.  
After making enough amount of coffee, Beth started working on the new project.

* * *

In the middle of her work, Beth was getting hungry and went to fry bacon, although it was 4 in the morning. Usually, she wouldn't move a finger for her growling stomach while working, but 3 days at that man's place picked some bad habits.

Even after the fourth day, Beth still didn't return Sebastian his clothes. The main reason was that she didn't wash it yes. The other reason was that she slept in his shirt. She knew that it wasn't quite right thing to do, but she felt comfortable in it and it helped her fall asleep faster. 'Saturday.' She gave herself mental deadline. Till then, she'll sleep in it. 'You're a freak.'

* * *

While standing in front of her opened school locker, Beth was taking books for her next classes when someone put a hat on her head. "Surprise!" she then heard Deb shouting into her ear. "Deb!" Beth turned to her with a smile and hugged her. "Do you like it?" Deb asked, grinning from ear to ear. Beth took the hat from her head and looked at it. It was a black-red flat-brimmed hat with a 'Chicago Bulls' name and their sign on it. "This would be a bad time to tell you I was joking, right?" Deb's grin disappeared in a moment and was replaced with a shocked one. "Oh, relax, I'm messing with you.", "You better be. I had to fight for that one because others were either white or red.", "Thank you Debbie, I love it." Beth put it back on her head and Deb suspiciously raised her brow. "Okay, what happened to you over the week? You're smiling, hugging me and calling me 'Debbie'. You're super suspicious." Beth snorted and closed her locker. "Nothing happened, I just had a nice, quality sleep, that's all.", "Mhm…", "Come on, let's go." Beth said and pulled Deb's hand after it rang for class.

"Beth?", "Yeah?" Beth turned to Brian in math class. It was probably the only class where he sat behind her. "Did we have homework?", "You're asking me that now?", "Well, you just got here." Beth sighed and smiled. "No, we didn't.", "Okay. I didn't know you cheered for Bulls." He said while looking at her hat which was still on her head. "What can I say? They're the best." She jokingly said and took it off her head. "I know, right? Did you watch the last night-", "Whoa, dude, chill." Beth stopped him before he could continue his blabber. "I don't watch sports, so it's meaningless to tell me things, okay?", "Okay… Oh, and Beth?" he stopped her before she could turn around. "You're pretty when you smile.", "Thank you." She insecurely said and turned back in her seat. 'What else will happen today?'  
A minute later, Sebastian finally came in. When seeing him, Beth covered her mouth and tried to suppress her laughter, but failed. Luckily, no one saw her because there were several 'big' students sitting in front of her so she was practically invisible. And no one really paid any attention to her either. The reason she was laughing was that Sebastian wore the tie she bought him for Christmas. No one else laughed but her. She just couldn't resist, even though it suited him well.

"You plan on eating all of that?" Deb asked Beth when she joined her, Emily and Amy at the table. "Yeah, why? I'm hungry." All three of them looked at her plate filled with meat, sandwiches and potatoes and then how Beth started eating. "Okay, what?" Beth asked with mouthful of food while looking at them. "Nothing, nothing… By the way, what were you laughing at in math?" Amy asked while stabbing her fries on the fork. "You saw that? Well, Brian told me a joke.", "Really? Which one?", "You wouldn't get it.", "Maybe we would.", "Okay, so… Knock, knock. Who's there? A long pause… Java." Beth remembered the joke she heard before and started laughing, whilst girls fake-laughed. 'Nice one, Beth.' She complimented her upgraded skills of getting out of irrelevant discussions.  
After she ate before everyone else and had a little chit-chat with girls, Beth went back to her locker to replace books. Most of the students were in the cafeteria, so the halls were pretty much empty and lifeless. "Betty? Hey! Betty!" Beth suddenly heard someone calling for her by a nickname she hated the most and only one person in her entire life called her like that. 'Why now? Out of all times?'

* * *

Yeah, sorry, this one is short, but I started writing it too late and this happened.  
Also, lack of sleep doesn't help.


	18. Troubles with Mike

Most oft he students were in the cafeteria, so the hall was pretty much empty and lifeless. "Betty? Hey! Betty!" someone called for her by the nickname she hated the most and there was only one person who called her like that. The steps were becoming louder and Beth turned her head to the person that was approaching her. "Betty, I missed you!" Before she could even say anything, he was hugging the life out of her, while she just stood there, not moving an inch. "Mike, let me go." Beth said deadly serious. "What? Aren't you happy to see me?" he asked with a small pout. "I'd rather see you in a puddle of your own blood.", "I see you're as straightforward as always, Betty." He said with a chuckle, not caring about Beth's statement at all. "You're even more beautiful. Did you lose some weight? You look better than 3 years ago." He quickly said while observing her from head to toes. Beth wanted to kill him at the moment.  
"What are you doing here?" she asked, already annoyed, while staring into his green eyes with an indifferent voice. "That's right, great news. For the part of the college research, I made a contract with school for a two-month experimental math teaching. I get to work with some guy… What was his name again? Sebastian?"  
Beth literally felt like a thunder struck her. "You're kidding me, right?", "Nope. I'll be some kind of substitute teacher, while he will observe my classes and grade me. Isn't that great?" When Beth didn't say anything, Mike chuckled. "Well, I'll be going. I'm starting from the next week." He made a few steps and then stopped. "By the way, you shouldn't wear glasses. You look better without them." Beth really wanted to kill him. "Too bad I need them only for my sight."

Sebastian had to stop eating his lunch because he was called by the principal. He was introduced to a college student who needs to do this project for college and the school is willing to help him. He remembered when he had to do stuff like that. Useless bother, really. The bad thing was that he got to have him. The good thing was that it's only one hour a week. 'It should be entertaining, especially with seniors.'  
After Ms. Walker, the principal of the school, gave him the table in which he was supposed to write his estimates about the boy's teaching, Sebastian went out of the office and headed back to finish his lunch.  
On his way back, he stopped by a wall and leaned on it, quickly looking through the papers. While standing there, he overheard that student Michael, if he remembered his name correctly, was talking to someone. It was a girl and he talked to her like they were old friends. "I'd rather see you in a puddle of your own blood." The girl said to him and Sebastian figured that it was Beth. "I see you're as straightforward as always, Betty." 'Betty.' he repeated in his mind and chuckled. "You're even more beautiful. Did you lose some weight? You look better than 3 years ago." 'So, they are friends.' "What are you doing here?" Beth asked him as she was tired of his shit and Sebastian thought that he should better go. It was none of his business and there was a lunch waiting for him.

* * *

Every Tuesday they had Michael as a substitute teacher. Isn't that great? A substitute teacher to a current substitute teacher. As far as Beth understood, he showed up just in right time because they were going to repeat stuff from the 9th to 12th grade for the state graduation which Michael will be teaching.  
Sebastian is going to be in the back part of the classroom and watch his abilities, but he will also teach the new stuff on Thursdays. It wasn't much of a problem to Beth; she knew practically everything from the past years, but it wasn't the case for others.  
Girls were delighted by Michael, just as Beth was 3 years ago. He was handsome and tall with a flashy smile, but self-centered as fuck. Heartless, too.

While he was talking about something, Beth leaned her head on her hand and stared out of the window, remembering the past. She was a freshman and he was a senior, basketball player, popular among everyone. Yes, Beth was seduced by his looks, but decided to ignore him because he seemed like a flashy guy and she simply hated flashy guys. They think everything is about them. So one day after two months of school, Beth found him standing next to her locker, alone. Completely ignoring his existence, she replaced her books and continued her route. With a chuckle, he stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder, followed with words 'Am I that unbearable?'. That started everything. He was talking with her more and more often, even walking home with her because just then she found out they lived in the same street. Little by little, she fell in love with him and they started dating. Even her parents loved him. One night they were watching movies together at Beth's house when she got a call. It was that call from the hospital about her parents' death. Beth told him to go home and that she'll explain everything to him later. She wasn't capable of anything at that moment. But since that night, he didn't talk to her anymore, nor even looked at her. He broke up with a text message and continued living like she never happened.  
And now he showed up and practically jumped on her overwhelmed with happiness, calling her with that stupid 'Betty' nickname he made up. Even though she's been called various nicknames people took from her name, 'Betty' was the worst one. She couldn't help but think of Betty White every time she heard it. Betty White is a great woman and all, but nuh-uh. 

While sitting in the back of the classroom, Sebastian had a clear view of everyone. He adjusted himself as comfortable as possible in those small chairs and started to take notes. It was a bothersome job to do, but it had to be done. Michael seemed used to getting the attention and had no problems at explaining the problems. He was also very calm, without a track of nervousness.  
After half an hour Sebastian wrote all the positive comments, because the kid was good, and got lost in his own thoughts. Without thinking, he started drawing on the paper. When someone screeched with a chair, his reflexes woke up and he had to chuckle at the dicks he drew. He also did this in his high school on math classes. They were boring as well.  
He didn't even realize, but Michael already gave them task sheets to work on. 'Boring…' Sebastian thought while looking around the classroom. He looked just in right time to see Brian poking Beth with a pen and her handing him the paper without turning around. 'This explains so many things.' He remembered how disappointing it was to see Brian solving the task on the board without a problem and then having barely average points in the test. 

A second after Beth finished her sheet, she felt a poke from behind. Brian didn't even have to ask anymore, poke in the back was enough.  
"Okay, who would like to solve the first one?" Michael asked, but no one even twitched.  
"No one? Then how about… Elizabeth?" he chose Beth from the list of names he had on the paper. 'That son of a bitch.' Beth thought as she was reluctantly getting up from her seat. The task was already written on the board, Beth just had to solve it. It was easy and short and she was done in half a second. "Thank you, Betty." Michael said with a smile, causing Beth to press the long chalk against the board so hard it broke in half and flew to the middle of the classroom, bouncing from the floor three more times. There was a deafening silence which Beth used to correct him. "It's Beth, not Betty. B-E-T-H. Beth." She said with a cold voice and went back to her seat.  
'This is like a series of unfortunate events.' Beth thought and leaned in her chair, sensing that the next two months will be a total catastrophe.

* * *

"I see that you're still mad at him.", "He did that on purpose, Deb, on purpose. I'd give my life to confirm that. I despise him." Beth calmly said and then started furiously eating her lunch.  
"That is Mike? Your ex? He's totally changed." Emily said while sitting down. "By the way, that last part that happened was a little bit creepy. I think we saw a tiny trace of your dark side.", "Believe me, you didn't." Deb quickly said while shaking her head. "I know the best.", "Can we please stop talking about him? I'm losing my appetite." When an uncomfortable silence appeared, Beth sighed and apologized to them. "Sorry, I think it's PMS, no hard feelings.", 'As if. I'd be happy if it was PMS.' "Oh, we understand." They said in unison and smiled.  
After finishing her plate, Beth stood up and went with an excuse she had to look through chemistry notes. In fact, she just wanted to be alone, but the chemistry excuse seemed like a good idea. Tests are getting closer and she doubted she'll do any studying.

"Bett- I mean, Beth! Hold on a minute, please.", 'Here we go again.' Beth took a deep breath and waited for Michael to come closer. "I need a favor." He asked with puppy eyes. "What now?" Beth slowly asked, looking aside. "I'm kind of busy right now, so could you please bring the files from the classroom to the teacher's room?", 'Anything to get you off the hook.' Beth nodded and he handed her the key. "They're in the closet. You should better hurry. Thank you." He quickly said and stormed off.

While dragging her feet, Beth finally came into the classroom and unlocked the closet. 'I knew that something was fishy.' She thought and looked at the two piles of 2-inch files. 'There's no turning back now.'  
Beth was carrying all 20 of them in her hands with a great care. Yes, they were a little heavy, but real women do it in one trip.  
She had to walk a little crooked because that was the only way she could see where she was walking.

* * *

Sebastian told Michael to bring the seniors' files to the teacher's room, but he probably shouldn't. Even though he was busy with printing the tasks for practicing, Sebastian went to check if Michael even went for those.  
Before he reached the stairs, loud thuds echoed through the hall and Sebastian hoped it wasn't Michael.  
Well, he was close.  
True, files were all over the stairs and floor with an extra person getting up. "Oh, fucking shit…", "What happened? Are you alright?" Sebastian asked while practically running downstairs. No one except them was in the hall, so there weren't any witnesses. "I'm sorry… I was hurrying so I think I tripped and fell down.", "Beth, is that you?" he asked when he got closer. "Uhm, yes. Do you see my glasses anywhere?" she asked while tapping around. "Why are you carrying this?", "Michael told me to do it because he was in a hurry.", "He did? You specifically?", "Well, I was the only one there, so yeah. Why?", "Because I told him he can go eat when he's done with these. Here they are." Sebastian said and handed her the glasses.  
Right after she put them on, he saw that she was bleeding from a wound on her forehead. "You're bleeding.", "What? Where?", "Forehead.", "Whoa…" Beth said and wiped the blood with her hand.  
"Why don't you go to the infirmary? I'll take care of this.", "Because of this? Nonsense.", "Go." Sebastian sharpened his voice and Beth gave up. "Fine…" she sighed and slowly went while Sebastian quickly picked the files. '  
There will be problems.' He thought and remembered the scenes with Michael from the hall and the classroom.

* * *

Whoa, this is not what I imagined, but it has a purpose, I hope.  
By the way, ever since I made this guy up, I hated him.


	19. Goodbye Mike

„Man, I'm hungry…" Beth yawned and scratched the scar on her forehead. Luckily, it was on the upper left side so it could be hidden with hair. Also, it had a shape of a crescent moon.  
Beth accepted the fact that she'll have to live with that until she dies; if it didn't disappear after two months, it never will.  
She was pulling another all-nighter, this time for school because the essay for English still wasn't finished and the deadline was tomorrow, for the last day of school before spring holidays. The theme was 'What do I want to do in my future', as if they were in kindergarten. This was Beth's weak point because she already had a job and couldn't imagine anything else. Kind of sad.  
Somehow she managed to write 600 words and then was when she went to eat. Well, it was 7 in the morning, anyway.

* * *

"Beth, are you going home now?" Deb asked while waiting for Beth to take her books. "No, I'm going to celebrate.", "Celebrate what?", "Not having to see Mike anymore.", "Ah, yes, he quite tortured you in these two months.", "You think?" Beth sarcastically asked and closed her locker with a loud slam. All the errands befell her 'by chance'. Sharing the tests, solving tasks or helping some students that didn't understand. It could be worse if Sebastian didn't talk to him.  
"I swear to God, that guy has some serious personal issues with me. You coming with me?" Beth quickly changed the subject. "Where?", "Well, I was thinking about pizza because I'm hungry.", "Sorry, no can do.", "Okay." Beth simply said and shrugged her shoulders. "You're not gonna ask why?" Deb dragged the question and Beth laughed. "No, you're going to tell me, anyway.", "True. Well, I'm going to Claude's place." She happily said and started humming a tune from some song. "You're still with him?" Deb stopped humming and looked at Beth with 'are you fucking kidding me' face. "I've been talking about him for the past 4 months.", "Oh? I thought you were telling that to Emily and Amy. I'm not listening to you all the time.", "Yeah, I can see that.", "Anyway, use protection.", "Beth!" Deb yelled with a disgusted face and tried to hit her, but Beth skillfully dodged. "What? As if you won't have-", "Enough! Please, enough. It's not like we jump each other every time we're together.", "But you still do.", "Shut your mouth. Hey, it looks like you've got company." Deb smirked and fastened her pace. "See you over the break." Beth frowned and made a confused face. "What are you ta-", "Beth!" she twitched at the sound of her name only because it came out of Mike's mouth and cursed Deb in her mind for leaving her. "Beth, wait up." He yelled through the hall while running to meet Beth. "Hey!" he said when he caught up to her and smiled, showing his pearly white teeth. Beth didn't say a word, but continued walking to the exit. "Are you going home?", "No.", "Then where?", "None of your business.", "Come on, tell me.", "Fuck off." He laughed and sighed. "Then I'll just follow you." 'Somebody kill me.'

"Hey, Beth. The usual?" Myra, the woman who worked at Pizza Hut and befriended Beth, asked for her order. "Hey, Myra. No, I'll take jumbo Pepperoni pizza and Mountain Dew.", "Coming up. What about you?" Myra asked Mike who stood next to Beth.  
Beth sat next to the window and Mike joined her a moment after.  
"Do you really have to sit here?" she asked him, getting angrier by every second. "I'm not going to eat you. Besides, you weren't complaining before.", "That was before, this is now." She answered back and ignored him by looking out of the window until her order came. Mike ordered as same as she did.  
In the past two months, Beth noticed that Mike copied Sebastian's style of wearing. Black jeans, shirt in dark color with a matching tie, sport suit jacket, Converse shoes and a one-shoulder college-like bag. Except that Sebastian wore Neo Adidas or Vans brand of shoes.  
Yes, Beth was that detailed in observing that she was looking at his footwear. The best part of it, which made Beth happy for some reason, was that all of it looked better on Sebastian, no argues there.  
"You're eating a lot." Beth couldn't mishear that part. She also could not notice that he was staring at her breasts the most part of the time. "Yeah, it's a part of life, I can't help it. Sorry." She sarcastically said and started eating faster while looking outside again where a black BMW just parked near the store and she immediately thought of Sebastian. Probably because he was driving the same as that one. "Have you gained weight?" 'Insolent son of a bitch.' "Only for your information – yes, I did. I've gained precisely 24 and now I have 127 pounds.", "Whoa, isn't that a little too much?", "Unless you have some fucked up fetish for anorexic girls, then no, it isn't.", "You'll be fat otherwise.", "Go back to sucking dicks on your college. Oh, yeah, say hi to your parents. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to the toilet. Do NOT follow me, understand?" When he nodded with his mouth opened a little, Beth picked her stuff and left. 'Where do I only make up stuff like that?' she asked herself while repeating the said words in her head.  
"Please Myra, flirt with him or something, just to keep him for a while.", "Why? He's a hottie, I don't see a problem." Myra joked while looking from Beth to Mike. "Please? I'll explain later." Beth begged her with desperation in her voice. "I'll see what I can do.", "Thank you, you're the best." She smiled and stormed out of the place to the street, hoping that Mike wouldn't follow her. It was like she was running from a killer.  
From the interior of the nearest store there was, Beth watched if he was going to come there. And curse her luck, he did.  
'Fucking, shitty, insolent bitch!' Beth repeated in herself while escaping from one aisle to another. She didn't know if he knew that she was there or if he was actually shopping. 'You're pathetic, Beth. Running from one puny, despicable man. If only I wasn't living that far away.'  
Like a miracle, Sebastian appeared in the same aisle as Beth. 'So it was his car, after all.' was all that she was thinking at the moment. She quickly got to him with her brisk walk and stood behind him. "Are you stalking me now?" he asked jokingly after he noticed her presence. "Please help me." She whispered and got closer to him. "Who're you hiding from?" Sebastian started to whisper, too. "Mike." Beth answered with hatred in her voice. "He's been following me since school.", "That's kind of creepy.", "You're telling me."  
"Why are we whispering?" Sebastian asked after a few seconds. "So he doesn't know I'm here. Hold still." She said and turned him so he was facing at the end of the aisle, while she hid behind him, practically leaning on his back. He was a good hiding spot for Beth because of the difference in their sizes. And they were both wearing black. "Take something and pretend you're reading it.", "I am doing that already.", "Oh… okay. Did he pass by?", "Nope. Are you sure he's following y-", "Sebastian! Hey man!", "Michael." Sebastian greeted politely and more quietly because he had manners, unlike the other man who's shouting so the whole store could hear him. "You doing some shopping?" Beth heard him coming closer to Sebastian, starting a conversation. "Yes." Sebastian answered after a few seconds of silence, as if the chart in his hand wasn't proving it. "How about you? Looking for something?" Mike laughed and sighed. "Yeah, do you know where Cheetos are?", "I believe they're in the snacks section.", "Oh, right, figures. Thanks for the help.", "Always." Sebastian replied and Beth could hear Mike's steps disappearing.

* * *

Well, another shorty today. But that's why tomorrow will be a longer one.


	20. What to do

As Sebastian was standing in front of a row of seasonings, remembering which he was supposed to take, he noticed someone standing next to him, entering his personal space. "Are you stalking me now?" he jokingly asked when he figured that it was Beth. Although it was a joke, he did find something weird with them accidentally meeting together.  
"Please help me." She whispered and got even closer to him. "Who're you hiding from?" Sebastian asked, even though he though he knew the answer. "Mike. He's been following me since school.", "That's kind of creepy.", "You're telling _me_." She said with a highlighted 'me' in the sentence. "Why are we whispering?" he asked because there were only them in the aisle. "So he doesn't know I'm here. Hold still." Beth said and with her slim hand on his waist and other on his shoulder turned him in a way he faced the end of the aisle. "Take something and pretend you're reading it." He heard her hysterical voice and had to smile. "I am doing that already." If she didn't know what he was doing, then he was a good hiding place for her. "Oh… okay. Did he pass by?", "Nope. Are you sure he's following y-" Sebastian intended to ask if she wasn't hallucinating things, when the other man interrupted him. "Sebastian! Hey man!" Michael greeted like every time they've met in school. "Michael." He greeted back and looked at his counterpart who was coming closer to him with brown hair, green eyes and eternal smile on his face, but with the almost same clothes as his. That part was a little irritating. "You doing some shopping?" Michael asked and looked at his cart. Sebastian just hated obvious questions like that, especially from him. Well, he heard them a lot through the past two months. "Yes. How about you? Looking for something?" Michael laughed and scratched the back of his head. Sebastian's heart skipped a beat when Beth clenched her fist with his jacket in it and leaned her head on his back. "Yeah, do you know where Cheetos are?" he asked after a few seconds, it probably required some time for him to make up a question. "I believe they are in snacks section." He answered with a fake smile on his face. That was a good specialty of his that made people think he actually cared. "Oh, right, figures. Thanks for the help." Michael said and smiled once again, leaving in the same way he came from.  
Not even after a minute of Michael's departure neither Sebastian nor Beth moved an inch. "I think it's safe now." Sebastian said first. "Do you think he saw it through?" Beth asked and smoothed the part of his jacket she was holding tightly. "Considering how stupid he can be sometimes, no. He looks like the kind of person that's nice on the outside…", "But he's actually a twisted psychopath in the inside." Beth finished his sentence and cleared her throat. "Anyway, thank you for helping me.", "Not a problem. Do you want me to drive you home?" he asked while putting the bag of oregano into his cart. "No need, thank you." She said and smiled. "Well, see you around.", "Sure.", "Bye."  
Sebastian watched Beth as she carefully observed the store, just in case Michael was still there, and took a few couples of Milka chocolate bars on her way out. Well, at least he knew what he'll get her for Easter.

* * *

"I guess this'll do fine." Beth said while looking at her finished cake. The only good things about Easter were food and… well, food. Especially cakes.  
Beth put the cake in the fridge and cleaned the mess in the kitchen.

She even bought presents for Deb and Sebastian. It was reasonable to buy something for Deb, but she somehow felt obligated to buy something for him, too. Probably because he helped her when she lost her keys.  
The presents both contained the same; chocolates. Those fine chocolates and crème eggs with various fillings that Beth couldn't even pronounce correctly. With chocolates came Beth's homemade Easter eggs, decorated with special care in the tiniest details, and a card. Deb got a little longer message while in Sebastian's simply wrote 'Happy Easter'. She wanted to add something more, but got nervous, with no particular reason, and gave up. 'Coward.'

Before leaving to Deb's house, Beth decided to give Sebastian his present. She rang, but he didn't answer so she thought he wasn't at home and left the box in front of his door.

* * *

Sebastian sighed in relief when he parked his car in the garage. He was in Washington, his hometown, visiting his parents. And of course, like any other Easter, the Midfords had to come to. As same as Diedrich, father's old friend ever since high school, with his wife and new-born son. But that wouldn't be all if Lizzy wasn't as hyperactive as ever, playing with Sebastian most of his time.  
While breathing in the fresh air, Sebastian slowly walked to the building and took the stairs. On his doorstep he found a box wrapped into paper with fluffy bunnies on it and a note with 'From Beth' written on it. He smiled and remembered he didn't give her a present yet. He left too early in the morning and now was too late to hand it over. The most surprising thing was that no one stole it, considering where they lived, until he opened the box and read the message in the card.

'Happy Easter :)  
We all know I'm not good at expressing my feelings, so I'm going to shorten the whole thing.  
I love you and I'm happy for having you in my life. Don't forget that, ever, no matter what I say.

P.S. We will not talk about this, okay? Beth.'

"Wait… What?" Sebastian read the card 5 more times, just to make sure he didn't misread anything, but no. There were no flaws in Beth's neat handwritten message. 'I've never expected that from her… What now?' he kept sitting on the couch, not sure how to feel or what to think. He didn't know her that well, but she seemed as the kind of person that requires a time to confess. 'Shit…' He couldn't say he loved her, but he also couldn't say he didn't like her. Yes, she was smart, funny, independent and had a lot of self-esteem. It was easy to spend time and talk with her. You could casually talk with her without any pressure. Plus, she was pretty… Those are the signs of 'liking' someone, right? Or maybe something more? "This is all too much."

* * *

*Sigh*  
I'll just say that I had no inspiration at all and I was stalling it for three (?) days, writing a 5 sentences or so every day, until this idea occurred.  
The thing is that I already know what will happen at the end, but the problem is in putting something in between the events which is my huge weak point. I want it to be something, but I don't want it to be any shittier and so this happens.  
Yes, I said this one's going to be longer, but... fuck.

Also, I fell like a bad person because I'd rather stay at home and write this than be with my friends. Yeah...


	21. Just give it a try

There was only a month until the graduation and the commotion in the school was too obvious. Everyone was either nervous or excited about the end of the high school. Beth didn't actually care. Once she ends the whole school thing, she will still continue to work and almost nothing will change. But what she was curious about was Sebastian's behavior; she started to observe him more than before. Even though she knew most of the stuff they learned in math class, Beth was paying attention to Sebastian's teachings. They were easy to understand. And the jokes that few of the students, including Beth, got them were funny.  
He started to act strange since Easter, almost as he was confused. At first, Beth thought he went through some shock, but when it continued the whole month, she figured it was something else. Sometimes during class she caught him staring at her with his bloody glare. At halls, too. And then after a while Beth started to feel nervous, followed by disruption in her stomach, not because of digestive problems. 'Maybe I've done something wrong.' She started to wonder and tried to talk with him, but he always managed to escape her, even though 10 freaking feet were separating them. 'Oh, well.'

* * *

"Congratulations, graduates of 2014." Ms. Walker, after her long speech, congratulated to all students that successfully finished their high school. "Oh, how original." Beth commented on principal's words. "Right." Deb, who sat next to her, agreed on her words.

"Mom, dad, picture Beth and me together." Deb told to her parents and cheerfully stood next to Beth who just awkwardly stood there with a small smile on her face. "Come on, Beth, cheer up a little. This is the last time you'll ever see this school.", "I am cheered up.", "Then widen that smile." As Beth tried to look happy on the outside, she felt like something was missing on the inside. It wasn't that everyone's parents came to their child's ceremony; Beth already got used to that. Something she couldn't describe.

* * *

Over the past month Beth realized she liked Sebastian, like, a lot. She wasn't sure since when, but she liked him. Not as a friend, but as a man. No matter how hard she tried to deny it, she knew it was inescapable. So she decided to tell him.  
Right after she confess, she's going to start packaging and move to another building. It wouldn't be possible to live next to a guy you have feeling for and then watch him how he finds a girl and starts a normal life with her, right in front of your nose. It just wouldn't feel right.  
If she'll have any luck, she will find a new job. She can be so dramatic sometimes.

As she rang on the bell of Sebastian's apartment, Beth was completely calm. Maybe a normal person would sweat their pants off, but only a dead man was more stationary than her. After a few seconds, she heard footsteps and then Sebastian opened the door. He seemed surprised, but greeted her anyway. "Yeah, I'm not going to hold you on this." Beth stopped for a second to inhale some air and then said it. "I like you. Sexually."

When he still didn't move, she quickly sighed and turned back to her place. ' Okay, wow, that was… pretty bold of you, but I still don't know what you expect-' Beth started to have a fight in her head when got interrupted by a hand on her wrist. "Wait." A deep, male voice echoed through the hall. "No, it's alright. Let me go, I still have some job to finish." Beth proudly said without looking at him, but he still didn't let her go. "Uhm-" she started, but got interrupted again.  
"I know." He said and Beth was confused. "I know that and… I think I like you, too." As dumbfounded she was, she turned back to him with her mouth slightly opened and her hand slowly rising up to her chest and pointing a finger at herself. Sebastian laughed and nodded.  
"Why?" was all that Beth could say. "Because you're you. You don't believe me?" he asked like he was hurt by her question and attitude.  
"Actually, not quite. This is not how it should go.", "Eh? That makes absolutely no sense."  
"Oh, come on. You're… wow, and I'm… not that wow." Beth said while looking from his long feet to his confused face. Sebastian just shook his head and sighed, drawing Beth closer to him. "Why... don't we... give it... a try?" he slowly said, harmonizing his words with Beth's steps. Beth on the other hand looked from his eyes to one point on the wall, not knowing what to say. "You're for real?" when he nodded with a smile, she blinked a few times, almost forgetting how to breathe. "I don't know what to say…" she murmured while taking her glasses off and rubbing the root of her nose with her index finger and thumb. "It's either yes or no." Beth's hand was removed from her face by Sebastian's while he neatly put her long, black hair from her cheeks and directed her face to his.  
After a long sigh, Beth finally said 'yes'.

* * *

Hate me all you want, you have a right to.

Anyway, it's 4 am here in my country (bad excuse :P) and I just had to write something.  
I know it's cliched as fuck, but the whole story is, so... shit.

It's NOT OVER yet, there are still 6-7 chapters to finish the story, yay,(there's no way I'd leave it like this), but if you remember, I said that I'l be absent for 6 days, maybe less. So, if I find some time, I'll update a small-ish chapter tomorrow.

And if I accidentally die on the trip, I told my friend what to do.


	22. Hot and bored

„It's so freaking hot…" Beth moaned and sighed while cooling herself with a catalog she grabbed under the table. "I can't help you there." Beth smiled when she heard vibrations from Sebastian's voice through his shoulder that she was currently leaned onto; it always made her laugh. "Meh… I should buy an air conditioner or something.", "I think there's a store 4 blocks from here.", "There is? Huh…", "Are you bored? Are you hot? If your answer is yes, then come and visit our newly opened swimming pool…" a commercial that showed up on TV got Beth and Sebastian's attention. "That is one of the shittiest advert I've ever seen."  
Beth first said after staring at the flat screen of her TV. "Well, maybe it's not the best, but it does the thing. Why don't we go to the pool? We're bored and hot." Sebastian suggested and imitated the voice of the narrator from the TV, which caused Beth to burst out laughing, as usual. She looked at the clock and nodded. "Sure, it's only 3 o'clock, we can still make it.", "Great. How about in 5 minutes?", "Deal." They quickly arranged time and went to pack their stuff.

Beth just stuffed two big towels, spare clothes and a swimming suit into her backpack and changed into black shorts and dark grey tank top. 'Good thing I shaved the last night.' She thought and remembered how it took her half an hour to shave, without her glasses on. Otherwise the glasses would get all steamed up and there would be more blood than usual.  
After turning off the lights and closing the balcony door, she got out only to find Sebastian waiting for her. He also changed clothes, with now wearing black pants and a v-cut T-shirt with a matching color. "Damn, you're fast." Beth said in surprise while locking the door. Sebastian's deep chuckle echoed through the hall and caused goosebumps on Beth's skin. 'Woah… Need to get used to his voice.' Beth self-noted herself and walked into the elevator.  
"By the way, what is the shittiest advert you've ever seen?" Sebastian asked when the door closed. "Hm. I think the first place will take the vacuum cleaner one. You know, from the 1998.", "Is it the one where the vacuum cleaner comes to life and starts 'cleaning' the house?" Sebastian asked while laughing at the every other word, followed with Beth's laughter and her nodding. "That was fucked up.", "Yeah, it was a little creepy.", "What else you got?"  
All the way to the car and their destination, they were talking about old commercials, laughing at them and laughing at their jokes.  
"Wow, we're already here." Beth commented and unbuckled her belt, with no problems this time. "Yup, time flew by fast."  
After buying the tickets, they went to change into their suits.  
'Oh, fuck me. Not again.' Beth thought and sighed while looking at her, now too small, swimsuit. She should have look at it at home and maybe stay there. But then again, Sebastian suggested it and he kind of looked forward to it. It wouldn't be nice to refuse, right? Right.  
"Holy fuck!", "I know, right?" Two high-pitched voices suddenly filled the dress-room. Beth sped up her changing because she hated persons with that kind of voice. At some point, if she was really irritated, it could make her cry. It was kind of a desperation cry and she had to be really irritated for that to happen. "Did you see that?", "Yeah!", "I-I can't even describe it! All those muscles a-and… oh Jesus.", "Mhm!", "I even think he was looking this way."  
'Teenagers.' Beth thought and got out, only to find two women, definitely not teenagers, stuffing some sort of that push-up sponge or something into their tops. She pretended she didn't see it and quickly got out.  
Across the women's were the men's dress-rooms and a few benches in between them. On one of them sat Sebastian with his backpack in his lap, looking at her way. As soon as he saw Beth coming out, he stood up and headed to her.  
At first, Beth stared at Sebastian, just to make sure it was him, and then made a few steps to him. She also needs to get used at him. The fact that they were in a relationship now still didn't reach her brain completely. It was still pretty unbelievable to her.  
"No, seriously, how can you change so fast?" He must have waited for her for 5 minutes or so. "It's a secret. Which I'll probably share with you some day, but today is not the day." He simply said and smiled at her. "You will? Wow, thanks." She said after her session of laughter ended.  
"We somehow match outfits." Beth joked after finally noticing his knee-length dark blue trunks. "Oh, yeah, we do. Only yours is a little… small." He added after a short break. "Oh, God… Don't mention it. I forgot to buy a new one…" Beth awkwardly said with a blush and turned her head from him. "I didn't say it looks bad, though.", "Shut up…" she said and blushed even harder.  
"Hold my stuff, please." Beth seriously said and handed her bag to Sebastian, who confusedly watched her leaving to the bunch of guys, but then relieved when it was actually a hot-dog stand she was walking to. "Figures." He concluded when she happily came back holding two hot-dogs.  
"When did you pull the money out?", "I had it prepared." Beth answered and took a big bite of one hot-dog while giving the other to Sebastian.

* * *

Hey, I'm back :)  
And I didn't die on the trip, yay.  
Anyway, the supposed one-week vacation (unexpectedly) turned into a two-week one. I brought my laptop with me, but I didn't write anything. It was hard, but I made it. :P  
Here is a little something I wrote yesterday and today; sarcastic to everyone that spoke to me, hungry and tired as fuck, so ignore the mistakes and stupid sentences.

And just in case anyone (perhaps) wondered, Beth does not look like me, nor do I look like Beth. But I'd love to have a natural black hair and blue eyes. Irrelevant.  
You get the point, right? Right.


	23. Sick

„Go on, say it.", "What?" Beth slightly frowned when Sebastian's question came out of nowhere. "You know…", "I'm sorry, but I don't.", "Yeah, you do.", "Sebastian, I do not know what you are exactly talking about. We discussed about a hundred subjects today." He sighed and turned his face to her after he stood in a line of cars. "Okay, I don't get it. I am stupid. Please tell me." Beth said after a couple of seconds staring at him. "This." Sebastian finally said and showed with his fingers at his red cheeks, burned from the sun.

* * *

"You won't use the sunscreen?" Beth asked when she was done with spraying her body. "No, I'll be fine.", "You sure? We both have milk-white skin, yours must be as sensitive as mine.", "Trust me, it isn't." Sebastian assured her and she gave up on being persistent.

* * *

Beth remembered the scene at the pool and covered her mouth with the palm of her hand before she started to laugh. "I should have record that." She muffled through her hand, thinking of the moment that happened half a minute ago.  
"Oh, come on, Miss America, it's not the end of the world. Besides, it looks like you're blushing, which is really adorable because I've never seen you blushing." Beth quickly said and sighed, calming down from laughing.  
"I've been called many names and adorable is not one of them.", "It is now."  
"What would you like to order?" a female voice asked through the speaker of a drive-through restaurant. "Two fries, three cheeseburgers, one hamburger, one vanilla milkshake and one chocolate milkshake.", "Is that all?", "Yes." Sebastian ordered and drove to the window where the lady handed him the order and he paid the bill.  
"I'm impressed." Beth enthusiastically said when Sebastian gave her one portion of fries, two cheeseburgers, a hamburger and a vanilla shake.  
"The food at the pool was terrible." Sebastian commented first while dipping the fry in the ketchup. "To you, too?", "Yeah. I thought you liked it.", "No way, man.", "You could have said sooner.", "Please, I'd turned out to be a nagger. By the way, what was I supposed to say at your, uh, sunburn?", "Right, I was expecting the 'I told you so' phrase.", "Oh, Jesus, come on. Anything but that."  
Beth said like she was tired of that and gave him 'What the fuck is wrong with you' look and asked him the same. "What the fuck is wrong with you?", "Why? Isn't that suitable for that situation?", "I don't care. It's something called bitching and I most certainly don't want to apply it on something like that. What?" Beth confusedly asked when noticed he was staring at her, not moving. "Oh, nothing. It's just that you sometimes have smart statements.", "Yeah, once in two months." Beth said and laughed. "Ooh, this is my favorite song." She quickly said when the song "I'm yours" by Jason Mraz started playing on the radio in the car.  
Until the song finished, neither Sebastian nor Beth said a word. They silently ate their food and stared out of the window.

"Thank you for today, I had a lot of fun." Beth thanked Sebastian before she entered her apartment. "Any time. By the way, how do I get rid of these?" he asked, showing at his sunburned cheeks once again. "Yogurt.", "A what?", "Yogurt. No, really, it helps. Can I take a picture of you?" Beth asked with a smile because she simply couldn't resist. "Why?", "You are so damn cute and… yeah.", "And you are weird.", "Mhm." She quickly took a picture of him before he changed his mind and kissed him. "Good night. And don't sleep on your back.", "Night. Thanks for the tip.", "Any time."

* * *

Just when Beth turned off the stove, there was a knock on her door. At first she thought it was Deb because she was supposed to come today, but she remembered she will be late, as usual.  
"Oh, hi." She said almost confusedly when she found a shirtless Sebastian in front of her. "Morning beautiful." Beth had to laugh really hard at that because she looked like shit since she fell asleep with a wet hair and there was a nest on her head. "One of these days I'll get abs from all the laughs you give me.", "Can't wait to see." He said with a smile and Beth noticed his red cheeks were gone. Thank God she took a picture.  
"I see the yogurt helped.", "Yeah, a lot, but I need some help with my back." He said and turned his back to her to see. "Damn… Come in." Beth invited him in while heading to the fridge to get a cup of yogurt. When she came into the living room, Sebastian already laid down on the couch, waiting for her.  
"So, did you sleep well?" Beth asked while spreading the white fluid over the red area on his back. "Well, I can't really wake up in the same position I fell asleep, so I struggled a bit when I woke up. This shit is cold.", "Yeah, and you're too hot. I have a question." Beth said while following the lines his back muscles made. "Ask.",  
"Have you ever been in a situation where you got dirty, let's say with dirt, stuck on your sweat or water, and you didn't have a shower until it dried up on you?", "Yeah, I did.", "Okay… and when you went to have a shower, did you have problems with cleaning these lines of muscles here? Or on your stomach?",  
"Where is this conversation leading to?" he asked, sounding a little confused. "Oh, for the love of God, I'm just curious.", "Aha… sure. I think I scrubbed it with a sponge or something like that.", "So, it didn't just leave with water?", "No. Why do you even ask?", "I'm just curious. That's all.", "You are a strange person, you know that?", "Of course. Here, all done."  
Beth said and tapped his back. "Thank you so much, I wasn't able to do it myself." He thanked her while getting up.  
"Thank God, I was starting to get worried you were almighty. No!" Beth yelled the last word because she dropped the half-empty cup of yogurt, which started to fall down, spinning in a process. And of course, the filling of the cup ended everywhere; on them, the couch, the floor, the table… everywhere.  
"Of course." Beth simply said and wiped some yogurt from her face while Sebastian took the cup into the kitchen and came back.  
"Beth! I'm here!" Deb suddenly shouted from the door and was in the living room in a second.  
"Oh… Did I interrupt something?" she awkwardly asked while looking from Beth to Sebastian and to the white fluid on them.  
"It's not what it looks like." Beth and Sebastian said at the same time. "I can come back later." Deb said with a smile while stepping backwards.  
"No need, I'll be going now." Sebastian quickly said to stop Deb from leaving and thanked Beth once again. Beth escorted him on the doors and kissed him before he left. "Take care.", "Likewise." They said and laughed for the last time at the event that just happened.  
"Whoa, he's so loaded… You lucky girl." Deb told to Beth, still looking at the mess. "Deb, it really isn't how it looks like.", "Yeah, right. All evidences indicate to that. You could have at least told me you were busy.", "Deb, it's a yogurt." Beth explained with a cold voice.  
"You guys are sick."

* * *

Imma just leave this here.  
I guess only my school starts on 8th this year... Yay for me.  
And I really hope I'll finish this soon, I'm not lying, but if I continue with this pace... nuh-uh.  
Right... Well, until the next time. :)


	24. Love you

„Do you prefer chicken or pork?" Beth called Sebastian from the store, deciding should she make chicken or pork or something third. „Well, the chicken tastes somehow bad when it cools down and it smells funny and I'm allergic to pork." Sebastian simply said in a monotone voice and Beth didn't exactly know how to react until she heard snickering from the other side of the phone. "Relax, would you? I'm only teasing you." He cheerfully said after an inhale. "H-Hello? Beth?" Beth clenched her phone while staring at some point in front of her. "For your information, you're not getting any of that.", "I already told you I'm fine with anything you make.", "Tonight you dine in hell.", "… I love you, too, hon." He quickly said and hung up, leaving Beth wondering if he was serious or joking, as usual.

On her way home, a sudden thunder clouds began to appear on the previous blue sky, making a frown on her face. "You better not start with the thunder, you piece of shit." Beth sent her words to the sky while looking at it. "It's an important evening.", 'Is it? Well, he's just coming to the dinner. A shitty dinner, that is.'

* * *

"Aaand it had to thunder." Beth sarcastically said when a loud, thundering noise pierced the now darkened sky. And it began only 10 minutes after Sebastian came. "So what? It's just a little…" he started talking but got interrupted by another, even louder, thunder and with the power cut. "A little what?" Beth calmly asked while sitting in her chair, eating her slice of her homemade pizza and staring in front of herself, probably at Sebastian, but she couldn't tell. "Okay… it's not little." Beth laughed and stood up to look through the window. "I guess the whole neighborhood is without power. Huh." She simply said and sighed and then started searching for the candles, hitting either her toes or knees on the pieces of furniture, cursing in the process while Sebastian was enjoying eating and laughing at her.

* * *

"Am I warm?" Sebastian asked while thinking of the next question. "Yes." Beth answered, laughing like an idiot. They were playing 'Guess who you are', sitting on the floor in the living room; Beth already guessed her word, which was a tractor. Now she was laughing at Sebastian's, which was a cock, an animal. She admired her own pun.  
"Oh, Jesus…", "Come on, that was your 9th question, it's pretty obvious now.", "Can you eat me?", "Mhm.", "Am I big?", "Yes, you become big.", "Am I a lion?" he finally asked and Beth wanted to facepalm herself. "For the love of God, get real.", "What? I told you I'm not good at this.", "Yeah, I can see." She said in a monotone voice. "I give up." Sebastian decided and peeled off the pink sticky note from his forehead.  
Beth started laughing at his expression when he read the word. It was a mix of 'what the fuck', 'I'm so done with you' and 'poker face' expressions. "Clever girl." Were his only words and then a smile appeared on his face as he neatly folded the paper into a small square. "Okay, I see you're done with this." Beth politely said and stretched her neck, followed by a cracking noise and her long inhale. After that, a big yawn was next. Just before she managed to cover her mouth, a paper flew in it and she couldn't even react when Sebastian's loud laughter echoed through the room.  
"It… actu… came…, o… my God!" he somehow managed to say while holding his stomach in that awful laughing pain. After staring at him like he was a 5-year-old kid, Beth gallantly shook her head in disapproval and threw the same paper at him, but predictably, missed. She couldn't hit something precisely even if her life depended on it.  
"You suck." Sebastian added and continued laughing. Beth cracked the knuckles of her right hand and punched him in the shoulder.  
"That was uncalled for.", "Yeah, right." She sarcastically replied and found herself lying on the floor in an instant.  
"Yeah." He leaned above her while affirming his statement and kissed her on the lips. They still tasted like the cherry cake they ate after dinner. In a positive way, of course.  
Almost unconsciously, he slowly moved from her lips to her jaw and neck. He simply enjoyed the natural scent of her neck and he hoped she wouldn't mind a couple of hickeys the day after. She put her hands on his head and passed with her fingers through his hair.  
She enjoyed how his long, smooth hair tickled her and even more liked how his kisses sexually aroused her. A feeling that the glasses might get in the way started to become more reasonable and she removed them from her head, putting them somewhere around her, as if she'd pay attention to that now.  
"Wait." Sebastian said as he lifted his head to face Beth. "What?" Beth again didn't know where she was looking at. "Are you sure you want to continue?" Beth sighed at his question. His protectiveness over almost everything was probably the only thing she didn't like about him.  
"If I wasn't, I'd tell you sooner. You know that. Now, shall we?", "Eager, aren't we?" Sebastian teasingly asked and smiled. "Oh, my God…" she snorted and started to remove her shirt while Sebastian was taking off his clothes.  
"Fuck!" Beth suddenly yelled with the shirt halfway gone. "What happened?", "Don't laugh." She demanded with a serious tone after a moment of hesitation. "Okay, I won't, what's wrong?" he seriously said and stopped with unbuttoning his pants.  
"The shirt… It kind of… stuck." Beth said with despair in her voice. For a moment, she couldn't hear a thing, but then a muffled laugh became louder and louder. "You cunt! You said you won't laugh." She yelled at him as he was laughing, holding his stomach.  
"You gotta… be kidding me! At time like this!" Since Sebastian's laugh was pretty contagious to Beth, she couldn't help but laugh together with him. It seemed that she put on some weight and some of her clothes became too small.  
When they finally calmed down and helped her to take off the shirt, he was the one that took the rest of the clothes off from Beth.  
Even though he got hard only from kissing her, undressing her made the space in his pants tighter, painfully tighter.

When the last piece of cloth was tossed somewhere, Sebastian leaned above her again. To make the thing less painful for her, his hand made its way to the place that gave the best pleasure to a woman and pushed two fingers inside her. She was already wet and slippery and adding the third finger wasn't a problem. After a few seconds of stretching her, he took the fingers out and licked them, one by one.  
"You taste like apples." Sebastian said and smiled. "Oh, my God…" Beth covered her face with hands and laughed.  
"You did not just say that." she muffled through her hands with a visible smile on her lips. "Well, you do." He confirmed his statement and after a shorter pause added: "I love apples." which made Beth blush. "You have some weird ways of complimenting people." She finally said after removing hands from her face. "And you don't know have to take them.", "What am I even suppo-" her argument was interrupted by Sebastian's kiss, which clearly told her to drop the subject.  
While kissing her, he placed his erection on her entrance and slowly came in. Beth gasped when he did; she didn't expect him to be that wide. It's not that she could see anything under the lights of the candles.  
She had sex before, but it wasn't that… _that_. Thankfully, he went in slowly and carefully, giving her some time to get used to the size. "Is it uncomfortable?" Sebastian asked, stopping for a moment. "No, it's alright now.", "If it starts to hurt, tell me.", "Don't worry." she told him and smiled to him. He smiled back and began thrusting in. First few thrusts were slow, but then he fastened the pace, little by little. "Nngh…" Beth moaned when he hit that sweet spot inside her.  
Every time he did, she moaned, bit her lip, clenched her fists, gasped, bended her back upward or scratched his back. From time to time she clenched her inside muscles because when she did that, Sebastian let out one of those deep groans of his. Music for her ears.  
"Ah! F-faster…" she muttered to him because she is already going to finish. And indeed, only after a few seconds of his fastened pace, she came while breathing rapidly and raising her hips higher to him, unconsciously clenching her inner walls. Sebastian's thrusts became slower, but harder as he was ejaculating inside her, groaning in the process.  
A second when he was done, lights in the apartment came back and both of them started laughing at the timing.  
They laid next to each other on the carpet, hugged together, both breathing heavily with a soft smiles on their lips. "I love you." Beth muttered to Sebastian before she fell asleep.

* * *

It happened, I updated! Thank God, I hate myself.  
First of, I'm sorry, for a 100th time in this story.  
Second of, I have a flu and I drink some shitty pills which make me talk nonsense, and do some random shit. One minute I'm sleepy and the other I'm doing back flips. (Kidding, I don't know how to do back flips. I tried once and almost died haha! :D Also, my mom is already tired of me, what can I say.)  
Third of, I'm in that sheepish, stupid, phase in a month where I hate showing in front of people more than usual and it sucks and that's why the sex scene is bleh.  
Fourth of, yay. They had sex, finally. Been waiting for that since the beginning of the story.  
Fifth of, I had to use that stupid 'big sized' cliché scene. I absolutely hate using that, but I was forced to because there was nothing else I could think of in this pathetic state of mine.  
Sixth of... five of's were enough :D :P  
Yeah...


	25. Why?

The first thing that Beth did in the morning was smiling. That wonderful scent that was coming from the person next to her made her day from the start. She opened her eyes and realized she was in her bed. When did they even go to bed?  
The sunrays from the outside spared no one. As she inhaled some air into her lungs and stretched her sore body, a sudden cramp in her right calf made her bite her lip and roll in the bed. Only a small roll on the left made her fall out of the bed because, no matter the size of the bed, she always slept on the edge of it. On top of that, her back hurt, probably from the last night, and she just let out a tiny little 'Ow' from her mouth, covered with sheets she pulled from the bed. "Is this your usual waking routine?" Beth heard a question in an amusing tone and sighed. "Well… yeah, most of them. Don't tell me you saw that?", "I won't.", "Shit…" Beth murmured and sat up, looking at her surroundings. Sebastian was on her left. She could only see a silhouette of him because that was the only thing her goddamned sight let her.  
While sitting on the floor and silently staring at the floor, thinking of nothing, Beth heard her man's laugh becoming louder and louder. 'My man… My man. Yes, he is mine' the thought of him belonging to her now conversely made her happy. Like a child. It also sounded good. "Yes, I stare at the floor in the morning." She explained and shrugged her shoulders as Sebastian sighed. "Are there any-", "Any stupid stuff I do? You have no idea.", "Any more interesting facts I don't know about?" Sebastian finished his interrupted question. "…Yes, loads of them.", "Can't wait to find out." Beth smiled at him and stood up, throwing sheets on the bed and heading to the bathroom. "I'm going to have a shower." She said, looking confused at her surroundings. Was everything always so… fogged?

Even though the water she showered with wasn't quite boiling, it still managed to fog up the mirror in the bathroom. In order to see at least something, Beth wiped the mirror with the towel, but it still didn't come off. Ignoring it for now, she put on clothes, combed her long hair and went to the living room.  
"Sebastian?" she called out for him because he didn't seem to be in the living room, or at the table. "Yes?" he answered in a suspicious tone, as if he found it weird to be called for.  
"Where are you?" Beth went to the kitchen, but he wasn't there. "Right in front of you…" he did sound a little worried now. Beth narrowed her eyes toward the light from the balcony as she saw him slowly approaching her. "Oh…" she said, thinking how she didn't see him there. "Have you seen my glasses? I don't remember where I put them.", "They're next to the remote.", "Thank you." She slowly tapped with her hand on the table because she really couldn't recognize objects. As soon as she put them on, she had to rub her eyes; the fact that she saw the same with and without the glasses on started to scare her a little. She rushed to the bathroom to see herself in the mirror and only few inches separated her from the object. Nothing. No changes at all. As she was slowly backing from the mirror, she heard Sebastian coming into the bathroom and quickly turned to him, giving him the frighten look. "Beth? What's-" he didn't even finish his question when she hugged him tightly, pressing her head onto his shoulder. He didn't ask anything, but only hugged her back.

* * *

"This is really serious, Ms Brant." Dr. Helberg, Beth's ophthalmologist, said with a serious tone, looking from Beth to Sebastian. Sebastian was standing next to Beth, holding her hand to let her know that he was there. "How serious?", "Let's just say that you'd be blind for the rest of your life if you came any other day." Beth's mouth slightly opened after she heard that, but she closed them and cleared her throat when it started clenching. "You only need to say yes for me to prepare the operation room and have you operated immediately or…", "Then yes, of course." Sebastian answered before the doctor even finished the question. "But," he continued, "the chances for the operation to be a complete success are 70%. It's either a perfectly healthy sight or sight with some difficulties. In worst case, complete blindness."  
Sebastian drove Beth to her ophthalmologist right after the incident in the morning. When the doctor did the check up, Beth was told she had a rarely genetic sickness she got from her ancestors and she was already in 3rd stadium of danger. Only an emergent operation could help, which happened. It lasted 3 hours, plus the time for Beth to wake up and stabilize. While the operation was in process, Sebastian waited in the waiting room, nervously twitching his foot up and down. After the operation, when Beth was moved to the recovery room, Sebastian was allowed to be with her, so he sat next to her bed, waited for her to wake up and watched her sleeping. He held her hand for the whole time he was there, except when he had to fill in the papers for Beth.  
When she woke up, the nurse put eye pads and bandages over her eyes, while the doctor gave instructions to them.

* * *

"Carefully now, watch your head." Sebastian led Beth after she woke up and rested for a while. They were heading to the car now. It's gotten dark 2 hours ago, and they came there before noon.  
"Do you want me to lower your seat?" he asked before starting the car. "No, it's fine like this." She said after a short pause, but despite her answer, Sebastian lowered the seat after all. The drive home wasn't as talkative as usual, but Sebastian, regardless how tired he was, still tried to cheer Beth up. She was still a bit under the effect of the anesthesia and was also tired, but Sebastian always succeed to make her feel at least little better.  
"Three steps ahead." He gave her instructions until they reached the elevator which wasn't working. "Again?" Beth tiredly asked after she heard Sebastian's sigh. "Yeah…" he stretched his arms and grabbed Beth in a bridal style. She screamed in surprise from the sudden change of position. "Sorry, I'm sorry. Should've warn you." He quickly apologized. "No, no. I am sorry, I overreact too much… Is this necessary?", "No offense, but you suck at this." Sebastian mildly said, referring to her current blindness. Beth nodded and he started walking, carrying her with ease. "Have you lost some weight?"

* * *

They agreed about Beth staying at his place until she gets better. It was a small quarrel where Sebastian won. Then they took some of Beth's clothes and personal stuff and went to Sebastian's apartment.

"What do you want me to cook for you?", "Uh, nothing. Really. Please just give me some water and then I'm ready to sleep."  
He did as she said, put the pajama on her and tucked her in the bed.

Seeing Beth pretty much helpless like that made him want to take care for her forever, with or without her sight back.

After eating his first meal that day, he brushed his teeth, took off his clothes and quietly crawled into the bed, next to Beth, not expecting her to cling onto him as soon as he lay down. "I thought you were asleep." She did say she was tired and it's been around half an hour since he set her to sleep. "I waited for you." She muttered and set herself in a perfect position, turned to him with her head only a few inches from his neck. Sebastian was lying on his side so he had a view on Beth's head. He gently caressed her forehead and that semi-moon-shaped scar in the top left part. The night lamp on the table next to the bed was still turned on, so he had a clear vision. He didn't turn it off when he lay down and didn't want to ruin Beth's peace now. It will make it through the night.

* * *

The next morning, Sebastian was pressed against Beth, holding her with his hand so she wouldn't roll to the edge and fall off the bed, since she said it happens every so often. He deeply inhaled and let out a long sigh. Beth was still sleeping and he wanted to watch her sleep for a little longer, but his mobile phone just had to start ringing. He quickly, but carefully wriggled out of the bed and ran to the living room, where the phone was. 'Dad.' The phone showed on the screen.  
He definitely did not see that coming.  
"Hello?" Sebastian answered and cleared his throat after hearing how hoarse it sounded. "Sebastian?" he heard his dad's cheerful voice, despite it was 7 am. "Yes, dad, it's me." He had to go through this every time his dad called him. Why did he have to ask if it was him if he called his number? Why, damn it?  
"Well, good morning, son. How are you today?", "Fine. You? Mom?" he simply said after a short pause. "We're perfectly healthy. But enough about us. Are you busy this weekend?" Sebastian rubbed his head and sighed. The weekend started tomorrow and he doubted Beth's sight would come back by then. "Yes, I am. Why? Is it something important?" as soon as he said that, he could practically see the disappointment on his dad's face. "I just thought that it'd be nice if you visited us once in a while. Us, your family, not your job." God, he sounded like a 6-year-old kid after finding out his mom didn't buy him the toy he asked for. "Dad… I'm sorry, but I really can't. Beth's in-", "Who?" his dad quickly asked and Sebastian barely managed to grasp what just happened.  
'Shit.' He didn't want to tell him about Beth yet. It was supposed to be a surprise. There is no going back now.  
"Beth." Sebastian repeated her name. "Your…", "Woman. Uh, I mean, girlfriend. My girlfriend." He said with a smile on his face. "Oh, praise the Lord!" his dad yelled over the phone. Another thing Sebastian didn't see coming.  
"And I was getting worried you started cheering for the other team, if you know what I mean.", "Dad… please stop.", "What? How long has it been? Two years? What was her name? Uh… Valerie?", "Yeah." He muttered and rubbed his eyes, hoping the conversation would end soon. "Even Diederich suspected.", "Oh, God…", "That's right. And what-" Sebastian stopped listening to his dad when he heard something falling down with a loud thud. "I'm sorry, dad, I have to go. Call you later." He quickly said, ended the conversation, threw the phone on the couch and rushed to the bedroom.  
Like he suspected, there was Beth, lying on the floor. "Is there some invisible force dragging you from bed to the floor?" he joked while helping her stand up. "Could be. I've never thought about it." He kissed her forehead and hugged her. "Did you hurt yourself somewhere?", "No." Beth answered and shook her head. "Have you slept well?", "Mmh, you have no idea how I missed this bed.", "You only had to ask." He teased her and got a poke in the rib. "Come on, it's shower time."  
For the whole time they were in the shower, Sebastian was washing Beth's body, as if she was a baby. He also ordered her not to open her eyes, every minute. A sudden change from the dark to light could damage her pupils, so she had to be careful. He even dried her body after showering.  
"What do you want to wear?" Sebastian asked while Beth was sitting on the bed, waiting. He had enough time to classify Beth's clothes into his closet. "Uhh…" Beth was speechless and then started laughing. "First, thank you for asking, that is adorable. Second… anything is fine. It's all in dark colors, anyway.", "Yeah, about that.", "What?", "How come you… no, wait. How should I ask… uhh… fuck." Beth smiled and waited for his question while he was dressing her and getting really confused. "That is a very interesting question, yes." She teased him when he still couldn't find the right words.  
"Why do you always wear black? I mean, do you love black or, I don't know…", "Really? You had a problem with asking that?", "Kind of." "Well, it's easier to buy clothes, that's for sure and I guess I love black. You thought it was maybe because of my parents?", "… Yeah, at first I did, when I saw you at school and such. But now when I see your underwear is black, too, I buried that thought.", "You thought I'm emo?", "No. Depressed yes, but emo no.", "Depressed? Why?", "I don't know. You always looked sad and you were the quiet type. I also remember the time when you had those huge, dark eye bags.", "Uh, horrible times." She shook her head and let out a small sigh. "Indeed." He agreed, but didn't know why, though.

Beth had some complications during breakfast. She really tried to eat on her own, but it's quite irritating when you have to stab a whole plate just for a piece of omelet. It crossed her line when she accidentally spilled the coffee from the cup. She could hear the liquid dropping from the table onto the carpet, probably leaving a big stain. It also spilled over her legs, but it was like it didn't even happen. The rage of knowing that she couldn't do anything about it boiled inside of her, made her forget about her surroundings and little by little overwhelmed her. In her situation, she couldn't even get up from the table without tripping or stumbling on something. There wasn't a place where she could wreak her anger by simply screaming, cutting pillows or hit something until her arms hurt so much she enjoyed it.  
Beth didn't realize she was clenching her teeth until Sebastian called her name several times. There was a burning fire in her chest she couldn't turn off. And Sebastian. Oh, how she felt sorry for him. It was surely fatiguing enough dealing with her when she's perfectly healthy, but if you add her disorientation, impossibility to move on her own and leading her like a dog on a string, there was no way to keep calm forever. There were times when Beth wanted to ask Sebastian what he likes about her or a simple 'Why?' question.

She sometimes found herself asking what is a guy, ridiculously beautiful guy whose tolerance level is over 9000, a guy who says 'no' to some things once a year and who treats you like a drop of water on a palm, who is overprotective, makes you laugh every minute and, most important, a guy who makes you happy just by talking to you or being next to you doing with a girl like her. What is he doing with a girl whose main entertainment is playing Mario Kart or other games on Saturday night, who bets with other people over food, who is laughing at stupid jokes and watches cartoons in the morning like a careless child, who falls out of bed every morning, who is sarcastic every freaking day, who hates socializing with other people and is pretty much heartless about stuff connected to people?

"Sebastian." Beth suddenly said and took a deep breath. "Yes?" he stopped wiping the coffee from her and the table and answered as if he was afraid of her reaction. "If I go blind-", "You will not go blind." He quickly interrupted her and encouraged her in some way. "If I go blind… would you… break up with me?" Beth barely brought herself to ask him that with her trembling voice.  
For 10 seconds straight there was an absolute silence and she patiently waited for him to answer. She took into account that he needed to consider the facts of ta-  
"H-how can you even ask me that, Beth?" Sebastian asked, sounding deeply offended. "Of course I wouldn't. Why are you even asking me that? Do you actually think I'm that much of a dick to leave you just because you're blind?"  
"Do you really want to be with a person who is constantly making mess? Who can't even walk on her own? It hasn't even been 24 hours since the operation and I already want to scream and break things. This anxious feeling is killing me and it's only morning. If it is morning, I can't even tell! Do you want to take care of all of that?" Beth aggressively asked, almost shouting at him.  
"And what if I do? What if I love to take care of a person I love so she can actually feel loved? What if I enjoy doing things that make you happy? That is not my obligation, it is my own will to take care of you. Why do you conclude things that include me without actually asking me?! Is it that much of a problem? Is it?! Relationship is a matter or two; one can't help if doesn't know what is bothering the other." Sebastian raised the tone of his voice, like it was the only way to make Beth understand.  
Beth didn't know what to say anymore. She leaned her head on her hands and deeply sighed. Deep inside, she wanted to cry. "I can't even cry. Even if I take this off, I can't cry. No matter what happens, I can't cry. The worst part is that I want to cry and I don't know why." She said, sentence by sentence. "I don't know why I'm telling you this-", "No, tell me. In the future, tell me what is bothering you. Any time you face difficulties or have problems, just tell me." he said before she could finish her sentence.  
"Jesus... When can I take this off?"Beth asked, referring to the bandages he had wrapped after showering. "Tonight. And then you have to wait 1-2 days until your sight gets back. Then, we have to go to the doctor so he can make a diagnose." he explained to her and grabbed her hand. "And if it doesn't come back?", "We will think about that is it happens. Now, come on, let's get you changed."

"I'm sorry. For being selfish."Beth apologized, sitting on the bed again while he changed her clothes. "No. Just… say if you have insecurities. Or questions. Or anything." And she had all of that.  
"Well, I don't know how to ask.", "What exactly?", "Uh…" she was already blindfolded so she didn't have to worry where to look at and decide to be straightforward.  
"Why me?" No further questions, only that one. "Why you what?" Sebastian asked confused. "Why did you choose me? Out of all girls, why me? Especially someone like me.", "Why wouldn't I?", "No, why would you? I mean, you're so perfect and I'm so… not.", "I'm not perfect.", "Yes, you are.", "Trust me, I'm not.", "Yes. You. Are." There was a slight tension between them until Sebastian sat down next to her and put her hand in his. "Listen, I really don't understand what are you so insecure about, but I chose you because I fell in love with you. Not someone else, but you. Your name, smile, laugh, humor, sarcasm, those pissed-off intervals, the way how you simply don't care about some things, your appetite, your dimples, your long, black hair, height, weight, your blue eyes, the way how you can be totally professional and mature in one moment and in other you're laughing at cats because they play with their whiskers, your falling out of bed, your bravery, courage and so many other things, but the most important one is your way of loving me. You're not a materialist." While listening, Beth became ashamed of her actions before and she was quiet, repeating his words in her mind over and over again. "From what movie did you take that from?" she teasingly asked him and then felt her throat clenching. "Mine." He answered and embraced her. "I love you, Beth. Don't ever forget that.", "I love you, too." She said while hugging him and softly leaning on him. "Also, you're going to write down those words of yours. They're beautiful.", "You only have to say."

* * *

It's been 84 years...  
Yeah, pretty much.  
Not gonna comment.  
Here's a little longer one.

Also, don't you just love Sebastian's laughter? Or, more correctly, Daisuke-sensei's voice?


	26. Yours

"All right, you ready?" Sebastian asked Beth before she opened her eyes. "Yeah." She nodded and opened them slowly. Of course, she saw nothing. "Does it hurt? Burn? Itch? Anything?" he started with a shower of questions. "No, nothing. It's just black. What about my eyes? Are there any differences?", "Well…", "Yes?!" Beth became impatient. "They're not…", "They're not what?", "They're not blue anymore." Beth stiffened when she heard that. "Come again?" she made herself ask that. It's not possible that her eyes changed color. Her precious blue eyes she received from her parents- Beth neutralized her face when she heard Sebastian snickering. "You son of a bitch." As soon as she said that, he burst out laughing. "I'm sorry! I had to do it. But your face was priceless! Oh my God!" by the sound of him laughing, Beth calculated where Sebastian's face could be. And then she slapped him. Not hard, though, but in that playful way. "You're an idiot." She said and got a hold of his head, got it closer to her and kissed him. "But you're mine idiot and I love you."  
Beth enjoyed the kiss a little too much that she didn't even realize she was lying on the bed with Sebastian topping her. He gently pinned her down while rubbing his erection onto her thigh. He stopped their kiss and Beth felt him moving and then a sudden, gentle kiss on her neck. A short pause was up and then he started nibbling her ear. She giggled a little because it has always been her weak spot. He removed her shirt and the rest of clothes and went on with 'attacking' her erogenous zones. Every time he stopped and moved to another place, Beth got more and more aroused. Not knowing where he was going to kiss her next lift her excitement up. Probably the only thing where blindness was a good thing.  
Beth gasped when Sebastian suddenly went down on her. She moaned when his tongue penetrating became so good she had to clench the sheets under her. She tried not to come yet, but his sucking, licking, gentle biting didn't help a bit. But what finished her were his words. "Do you like that?" Those four small words, said in his perfect male, seductive and teasing voice were more than enough. "Ah… Yes!" she managed to say in between her intervals of coming. "Did I ever tell you how good you taste?" he asked while moving upwards. "You told me I taste like apples." Beth said while breathing shallowly. "That's right. And from now on, I'll call it 'little apple.'" Beth had to laugh at his statement. He just gave a name to her vagina. How sweet is that?  
While Beth was still sensitive, wet and slippery, Sebastian slowly entered her, watching with pleasure how Beth's expression changed. She loudly moaned and arched her back at the feeling of him slowly moving along her sensitive and swollen clitoris. As if he was torturing her. "You're so tight…" he whispered with his head leant on the pillow next to Beth's and continued his slow penetration. Beth's breath was coming in gasps as he was thrusting. Every move, every inch, every sigh, she felt it clearly, through her entire body.  
Sebastian rose from the bed, put hands below Beth's back and turned places. Before Beth could properly shift herself on him, he sat on the bed and placed her legs around his hips. Now that they were both sitting, Beth started moving, at the same pace as before. She placed her hands on Sebastian's back so she could hold properly. Her breasts were pressed against his chest and the small pain it caused traveled from her nerves to her core. The pain increased when Sebastian came closer to her and kissed her, colliding his tongue with hers. She buried her poor, short nails into his back skin and moved her hand, leaving red, long trails on his milk white skin, several of them. Sebastian interrupted their kiss and moved onto her jaw line, then neck, collar bone and stopped on her breasts. To make it easier for him, Beth let go of his back and leant on her hands behind her back instead. He groped one with his hand while sucking and biting the nipple on the other. The stimulation of both her breasts and clitoris brought Beth to the point where she couldn't think anymore and where she came the second time, tightening her walls, moaning Sebastian's name and gasping. She didn't have enough strength to hold herself anymore and she leant on Sebastian again. He laid down with Beth on him, grabbed her hips and pumped in, groaning at the feel of his pulsing dick sliding through her tightened walls. Beth bit her fist as Sebastian kept going. After 3 or 4 more thrusts, he came with his deep tone of groaning and filled Beth with his semen until it started coming out of her. They were both breathing rapidly, tired from the sweet act of love they just did. Beth was too tired to move any part of her body so Sebastian did it for her, placed her next to him and put his hand over her waist. Her cheeks were red and with her pink, heart-shaped lips, white skin, round face and dimples in her cheeks when she smiled… "You're beautiful." Sebastian said with a smile. "And I'm so grateful you're mine.", "Yours?", "Mhm.", "Well, then you're mine too.", "Yes, I am yours."

* * *

Beth rubbed her itchy eyes as soon as she woke up and narrowed them when the light from the blinds holes directed precisely at her face. "This sunlight is so annoying.", "Yeah, I'm considering- Wait… What?!" Beth thought about what she just said and suddenly sat up in the bed. "I can see… Oh my God, I can see again!" she screamed in excitement and threw herself at Sebastian and hugged him tightly. Then she grabbed his head and carefully studied his face; even though her sight came back, it wasn't completely clear. But in any way she was delighted she could see again. "I'm so happy I can see you again." She told him and gave him a big, juicy kiss.

Beth was showering while Sebastian was making breakfast. She was smiling like an idiot of happiness. She could say she was finally happy with her life and that she can enjoy it.

* * *

"How's your bacon?", "Delicious.", "Keep digging.", "Wait, are you trying to get me fat?", "Maybe.", "Why?", "… Because." Beth gave him a narrowed look but kept eating like she didn't eat bacon for years, but she certainly felt like it. "Hey, are you busy the next weekend?", "No. Why?", "Well, while you were showering my dad called and we have a meeting at the company next Saturday. So, I thought I'd introduce you to them." Beth stopped chewing for a moment and then a big smile appeared on her face. "Really? Wow… How considerable of you. Yeah. Sure, great. Wow." Sebastian wasn't sure if she was talking to him or herself, but either way he laughed at her. "By the way, why do I not know where you're working?" she asked and he shrugged his shoulders. "I never told you, I think. But anyway, we have a company, my dad and uncle Diedrich are CEOs." Beth stared at him for a few moments, swallowed her saliva and stared at him again. "The hell are you doing here? I mean… why aren't you living there? Why are you here?" With a smile, Sebastian shrugged his shoulders again. "I don't know, New York seemed like an interesting place to live in. I think I also wanted to separate from them, too.", "Then why did you apply for the job of a substitute teacher?", "I was bored.", "So you did two jobs at once?", "Yeah.", "How?", "When there were more important meetings I travelled to DC and the other things we solved over laptop. And how is your job going?" he changed the subject. "I don't know." Beth said, still thinking about his story. "You don't know?", "Yeah, I think I'm going to quit.", "What? Why?", "I graduated and I can find something more concrete. If you get my point.", "If that's what you want. By the way, wanna go out today?", "Really? When?", "Around 3pm?", "I'm in. I could also do some shopping. Because of your food, I can barely put my clothes on.", "Yeah, blame the black guy." Beth snorted and kept eating. "Anyway, I'll be leaving you for an hour or two, maybe three, so just leave the dished in the kitchen. You know how the TV works… Yeah, that'd be all.", "Where're you going?", "The gym.", "Oh, come on! That too? Who are you? Really?", "But I was just…", "Jesus. But no, I have some things to do, too." Beth quickly said and swallowed the last piece of bacon in her mouth and left the plate in the sink. Then she took her stuff and was ready to leave when Sebastian appeared in front of her and put hands on her shoulders. "What about me? No goodbye kiss? Nothing?" he sounded like a kid that didn't get his candy and Beth widely smiled while putting her hands around his neck and pressing her lips against his. "Why you gotta be so cute?" she asked in between kisses. She felt his hands around her waist and how they got to the wall. Soon after, he slid his hands under her shirt on what Beth reacted. "Uhm! Nuh-uh, you have a place to be.", "It's not that important, anyway." Beth shook her head and started walking from him, but he followed her. "No excuses now, mister.", "So harsh… But, we'll continue some other time." He whispered in her ear and kissed her neck. She giggled while walking backwards to the door and looking at him with happiness in her eyes.

* * *

Beth entered her apartment and almost threw up from the stench that was ruling the living place. She opened all the windows that existed and found the culprit- the remains of the chicken she intended to throw away, but somehow forgot. It looked like it was covered with a millions of black and green hairy bugs. While swallowing a lump in her throat and stopping herself from throwing up, Beth took the plate where the chicken was and all-together threw in the bin. Then she went out to the balcony to wait for the apartment to ventilate. And to see Sebastian leaving, too. She leant on the railings and waited for Sebastian's car to pass by. But instead of his car, she saw him, walking and carrying sports bag over his shoulder. Beth whistled with her fingers and waved at him when he turned around. "Have fun!" she yelled and sent him a kiss. "It's not fun without you!" he yelled back and caught her kiss, storing it in his sweatshirt pocket and sending her his kiss. Beth also caught his and looked at him as he was leaving. "Grow up." She suddenly heard a voice and turned her head to the source of it. Timmy, that one neighbor kid that acted older than he actually was, 14. Beth ignored him and entered her apartment. She frowned upon seeing how the place was dirty, and smelly, and started cleaning.

By 1 pm, Beth done everything that could be done. After the operation, she saw so much better and she cursed herself for her nonchalance towards everything before. It also seemed like her hair was more shiny and healthier, the same for her skin. She called Debbie and heard a lot of swears from her, too, for not calling or even texting her. Beth didn't even know she wasn't home, but in Florida, with Claude and she felt miserable and pathetic for being such a horrible friend. But Deb being Deb forgave her that, too and kept talking about her vacation, Claude, sex life-Beth really didn't want to hear that, family, more Claude and more vacation. Beth was patiently listening while cleaning the place and answered her questions, when there were any. After an hour or so of talking, Deb hung up first with an excuse of going to the beach. After all of that, Beth wrote a simple mail saying 'I quit.' and sent it to the superiors. She also called doctor Helberg, told him the case about her sight and arranged a check up, the next day. The less comfortable check up, with her gynecologist, was in Wednesday. So, after solving all her tiny problems, she went to the Page Employment and searched for jobs that could suit her. There were three of them, about a computer tech at some companies and she sent them her job application, not actually caring if they'll considerate her as a candidate or not. Life is so less stressful when you don't give a shit and just go with the flow.

* * *

"Where you wanna go next?" Sebastian asked after leaving the 5th store, carrying Beth's bags. "I don't know. I think that's everything I need.", "Really? Already?", "I'd be done sooner if you didn't bother me with trying those shirts.", "But they look cute on you.", "And that's why I bought them.", "Good girl. By the way, you have bathing suits, right?", "Yeah, but I think I overgrow it. Why?", "I just have a feeling my dad will suggest playing volleyball in the pool.", "You have a pool?" he turned his head to her and nodded. "Jesus Christ, where do you live?", "Minnesota Avenue Street." Beth knocked him in the shoulder and walked on to the closest store with bathing suits.  
"How's it going?", "Can you tie this for me, please?" Beth asked while holding her hair up and waiting for him to enter the changing room. "I sometimes forget how good you look." Sebastian said when he leaned on the wall and watched Beth in the mirror. "You're the one to talk." She said and looked at the suit she was wearing. It was purple with white spots on it and it was acceptable. "This one is fine.", "So was the one before.", "No, the one before was too small.", "It was perfect." Sebastian said and narrowed his eyes, the thing he does when trying to prove something. "It showed too much and you know it." Beth turned to him now and placed her hands on her hips. "That's what it made it perfect." He responded and Beth simply said 'Out.' "Before you change, I found another one. Wait here." He said before leaving and Beth had an awful feeling about it. She sat on the little stool that was in the corner of the cabin and waited. A moment later, Sebastian got in holding a monokini for which Beth was sure only porn stars wear. It looked like it was made only of straps and straps only. Beth looked from it to Sebastian, pointed with her hand to the cabin door. "Okay…" Sebastian 'sadly' said while leaving. He could tell only by her expression that she would gladly strangle him if he showed her that again.

* * *

"Are you hungry?", "I could eat… Oh, hold up." Beth said and stopped walking, looking at the window of a Games store. "Could you wait for me here? I have something to do." She smiled and rushed inside. Sebastian just smiled and sighed, knowing that she found a game or something like that to play.  
While he was waiting outside on the bench, he was constantly looking after Beth. He noticed the looks of the men inside that followed her the moment she walked in, probably wondering what is a girl doing there. Ah, and the insidious look of a salesman who thinks he can sold her trash by a fake name. Well, not today my man. Beth probably knew how the whole console worked, how powerful the storage was, the price on the market plus the date when it was released. She would make a great businesswoman. Sebastian smiled when the guy brought the box on the counter and Beth shook her head, maybe started lecturing him while pointing at the box. In the next moment the guy was handing her the Complaint book and she was calmly writing her complaints. When she was done, she turned to the stack of video games. For about 5 minutes later, she walked out, carrying a big bag with the store's logo on it. "Let me guess. A new Xbox and a couple of video games." Sebastian said when approached him. "That's right and it's not just an ordinary Xbox. It's blue and it's wonderful. Yeah, it has a 500 GB hard drive and all, but it's a lovely arctic blue color. Special edition." Beth said with a smile and a dreamy look. "Can't wait to start playing it. Oh, and I also got Call of Duty Ghosts, Black Ops 2, GTAV, Halo 4 and Battlefield 4. I'll be busy whole summer." Sebastian wasn't sure if he was even listening to Beth, but he just loved to watch her talk about things she loves because then you could see the glow in her eyes and how happy she was.  
"I'm sorry I talk too much, but I'm so excited.", "And you just can't hide it." Sebastian added with a high-pitched sound. "Oh, God, I love you."

* * *

"Sebastian? Sebastian, is that you? Oh my God, it is you!" Beth and Sebastian suddenly heard a real high-pitched sound, coming from a woman this time. They turned around and saw a woman literally running to Sebastian like a mad man. She tried to hug him, but he stopped her before that act. At first he was confused, but then recognized the crazy woman. "Valerie, right?" he asked with a frown. "Yes, it's me! Oh, Gosh, it's been so long! I missed you.", "I certainly didn't." Beth bit her lip so she doesn't laugh to his response. 'So, this is his ex?' Beth thought while looking at her from head to toes. She looked older, like 30 or something and already had wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. She also had large breasts and was short, shorter than Beth for a head. 'So he's into girls with big boobs?' A lot of questions went through Beth's mind, but it was interesting looking at the encounter of those two. "What happened to you? Where did that skinny Sebby go? But you look so much better now and healthier too, but still so young." On the other side, Sebastian looked stunned. More like he didn't know where he'd start talking from. "That little weak, stupid, naïve, irritating, immature Sebastian grew up." He said it like he precisely repeated someone's words and Beth assumed that Valerie said that. A small dog that appeared out of nowhere started barking on Beth and Beth only. "Barkley, down!" Valerie shouted at him but the poor dog didn't listen. As it kept barking and going on nerves to them and to people around them, Beth looked at it and said 'sit', on which the dog got quiet and actually sat down. From then, Beth got Valerie's attention. She noticed they held hands and were pretty close to each other. "You must be Sebby's girlfriend." She said and forced a smile. "Yes, I'm Beth. Glad to meet you.", 'Not.', "Sebby surely told you about me.", "Yeah, _Sebastian_ said a word or two, not much." Beth highlighted his name and saw Valerie's brow flinch and felt somehow victorious. Wonderful feeling, indeed. "So, Sebby, how is business going?", "Why would you care?", "Oh, you know… Because." Sebastian stared at her for a second or two and then blinked. "Come on, Beth, let's go. You said you were hungry.", "Yeah, I was thinking about pizza.", "Great choice." They completely ignored Valerie and kept walking.

* * *

Well, we're getting closer to the end, thank God.  
Sorry for being inactive.  
We have 14 tests this month in school, plus the questionings and it's really, really frustrating. We had a Statistics (subject in school) test and we had to draw and color graphs and charts and I got so confused about coloring (I'm stupid, I know) that I stared at those lines and thought 'How do you color this shit?'. There were so many lines that I didn't know what was what. Anyway, I'm hoping for an A.

It's not like an excuse, but it's totally an excuse.


	27. Meet the parents

„Well, Beth… I have news, but they're not good." Beth nodded her head and waited for her gynecologist to bring some changes into her life, there haven't been bad news for a long time. "The thing is, you're infertile. That time when you had problems with your period because you starved yourself, your ovaries took the damage, too. So, in order to…" Beth stopped listening from there on. The only thing she did was nodding her head here and there. She twitched when he put his hand on her shoulder and left.  
Of course. Why would everything have to be perfect? Life would be boring like that.

Still shaken from the news, Beth slowly walked down the street as the strong wind blew in her back as if he was pushing her forward. Her long hair was flying everywhere until it pissed Beth off. She walked into the nearest hairdresser shop and told the man that worked there to shorten her hair however he wanted to. She should have done this sooner, long hair could be a real pain in the ass sometimes. While sitting there and waiting till the man was done, Beth was thinking if she should tell Sebastian about her infertility. Would he care, be mad, indifferent? His reaction? 'Fuck…'  
"All done." She heard the man say and looked at herself in the mirror. Laughing was the first thing she did. "Are you not satisfied, miss?" he asked as if it offended him. "No, it's just that… nothing. I like it." Her hair that used to reach her hips was now just a little below her breasts and there was a huge difference in weight. It was definitely easier to move her head now. "How much?", "50."

* * *

"Beth? Where are you?" Sebastian asked when entered her apartment. "Bathroom." He opened the door and found her in front of a mirror, combing her hair. "And I was hoping you were naked." Sebastian sadly said and blinked a few times while Beth started laughing. "Better luck next time, pervert.", "Did not hear that. So, what the hell did you do with your hair?", "Oh, you noticed?", "How could I not, it's like a part of you is missing." He said confused while passing with his fingers through her hair and sniffing it. "It's better this way. Anyway, I got some news.", "Me too.", "Y-you go first." Beth said while walking out of the bathroom to the kitchen. "Since we're going tomorrow, is 10 am good?", "Shit, I should have said first." She frowned while drinking water. "The thing is that I have a job interview tomorrow in 3 and… yeah, sorry.", "Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot you even applied. Computer programmer, right?" Beth nodded and drank another glass of water. "I found out half an hour ago, when I got home. I'd told you sooner if- why are you staring at me?" she asked when noticed him staring at her like a crazy man. "I just can't get used to your hair yet. You were saying?" Beth smiled and hugged him, leaning her head on his shoulder. She decided not to tell him about her stupid problem. Even though she had a good feeling about their relationship, she decided to wait a little longer.

* * *

"I'm so nervous right now, I think I'm gonna throw up.", "This is your first interview?", "No, I stopped counting after tenth." Beth smiled to the man around Sebastian's age that was sitting next to her in the waiting room and tapped his shoulder. "It's going to be alright, don't worry." The man nodded, nervously smiled and fixed his tie for the hundredth time he was there. There were a lot of people, mostly males, all waiting for the interview. Beth checked the time on her phone. '3:41.' Just as she was going to put the phone back in her bag, she got a message on Snapchat. It was from Sebastian and it was him, in the shower with his hair lifted up with shampoo, showing an empty space next to him. He also wrote: 'You could be here, but you're too busy for me. :D You can do it, champ ;) :* Love you 3'  
Beth covered her mouth so she doesn't start laughing like a maniac and snapped a photo of herself smiling and wrote: 'Idiot :D Thanks for the support :3 Feelin' lucky already. Love you back :*'  
"Elizabeth Brant." She heard her name and before she went in, that nervous man next to her wished her luck.  
Beth felt she somehow didn't dress appropriately. You can't impress someone in Converse, jeans and a blouse. "Good afternoon." She greeted two men that were there. One was older, 50 or something and was sitting, while the other was younger and was probably an assistant. "Miss Brant.", "Mister Woodlig." Beth said back with a smile after reading his name on the plastic card on his table. Beth heard a small laugh coming from him as he was writing something on the paper. 

"So, how did it go?" Thomas, that nervous man, asked Beth when she got out. "Fine.", "Mine went horrible.", "If you keep thinking like that, you won't get quite far in life. Be more confident." He nodded and Beth checked her phone again. '3:53.' It took her only 10 minutes. She also got another Snapchat from Sebastian, but in that was a plate with food and she was hungry. 'You jelly?' Beth shook her head and texted him back: 'Bitch. I hope you choke on that.'  
5 seconds she sent him a message, she received another one with him holding a hand on his chest and making an offended face. "Is that your boyfriend?" she heard Thomas asking and nodded. "Yeah, my idiotic boyfriend."she said smiling like an idiot "He's cute." Beth raised her head to look at him with a questioning look and he just shrugged his shoulders. "Can't help it."  
"Candidates." The assistant went out and started his little speech. "You were all great, but unfortunately, we had to chose 5 of you. Those who are read will stay here and wait for the next instructions while the others can go. Maverick Davis, Thomas Smith, Michelle Clark, Jonah Moore and Elizabeth Brant.", "Did not see that coming." Thomas and Beth said in unison and smiled at each other.

* * *

"Hey, hon. How was it?" Sebastian asked and kissed Beth when came to pick her and her package up. "I don't think I'll make it.", "Why not?", "Intuition.", "No offense, but your intuitions are mostly wrong.", "Shut your mouth.", "Okay…" he said and kissed Beth to 'shut his mouth'.

* * *

At first, driving from New York to DC seemed like a long way, but if you have someone you can talk, joke and laugh with, time passes by quickly. Sebastian talked about his parents, what they like, hate, support and approve. Once again, Beth had the feeling they wouldn't like her. At least one of them.  
It was 9:05 pm when they parked in front of a big, Victorian era house which looked more like a manor than a house. Beth was surprised she could even tell the style of the house; she still clearly remembered when Ms Rodriguez, her history teacher in high school, described the way they looked like and how could they be recognized. This one was made from local stone, had two stories, white sash windows and a porch. And that was only the front side, observed in a slight daylight.  
Sebastian opened Beth's door before she managed to loosen her seat belt and offered his hand to help her get out. By the time they took their baggage out of the car, Sebastian's parents came out of the house.  
"Sebastian, son, finally." Vincent said first happily, hugging Sebastian and tapping his back. "It's alright, dad, you saw me couple of weeks ago.", "It seemed longer." When Vincent let go of Sebastian, he turned to Beth and smiled. "So, you're Elizabeth? I am Vincent Michaelis, the proud father of that boy there." He said and nonchalantly showed with his head to Sebastian who was hugging Rachel. Beth put her travel bag down and stretched her hand to shake his hand. "Yes, nice to meet you." Vincent accepted her hand and the same second hugged her as if they were old friends. "Welcome to the family." Beth stood there in his arms and slightly tapped his back. "Thank you." Before he let go of her, she caught some of his scent. He smelled nice, one of those commercial men perfume and… Beth was sure she sensed Sebastian's scent, too. Maybe it's something in the Michaelis blood-line.  
Rachel, who already greeted her son, patiently waited for her turn. "Hello, I'm Elizabeth. It is nice to meet you." Beth said with a smile and did the same as she did with Vincent, but Rachel only shook hands with her and gently touched Beth's upper arm. "I am Rachel. Welcome to our home.", "Thank you.", 'Disapproving parent alert.' Beth said to herself while smiling to Rachel. "Well, come on in, a dinner is waiting for us." Vincent said and gestured with his hand to the house. "Oh, allow me." He said to Beth and helped her with the luggage. As they were walking towards the door, barking and running were becoming louder and louder. "Marcus, no!" Vincent shouted, but the big black borzoi wasn't listening. He was running really fast and his one and only aim was Beth. In a blink of an eye Beth was lying on the ground with the dog on top of her, standing proud as if he just caught the most wanted criminal. But when Beth inhaled and tried to stand up, the dog barked and licked her face, then repeated it for a couple of times until Beth got enough of it. "Down boy!" she yelled and the dog immediately got off from her and sheepishly went behind Vincent. "I'm impressed, Elizabeth." Vincent enthusiastically said. "But you have to forgive Marcus, though. You could say he's in his 'teenage' age, he still needs a lot of training.", "It's alright." Beth said when Sebastian helped her stand up. "I have a lot of experience with dogs.", "How so?", "They either love me or hate me. So I got bitten, jumped on, tackled, chased and drooled many times. I got used to it, really.", "Impressive." Beth softly smiled and followed the Michaelis family in their house.  
While she was observing the hall, Vincent got her attention and then she realized how young he looked, considering he's 46 years old. And he was pretty, so no wonder why Sebastian is gorgeous. Rachel also looked younger than she actually was. Ciel inherited her eyes and Vincent's hair color, while Sebastian inherited… well, Vincent's face, Beth guessed. Neither of them had black hair or red eyes. 

"I'm sorry Elizabeth, but I noticed you have a lot of luggage. Do you like fashion?" Rachel asked when Sebastian, she and Beth came to Sebastian's old room to leave their stuff. "Actually… only this one is mine." Beth awkwardly said and showed the small suitcase she was holding. The other three were Sebastian's. "Sorry, mom, I had to bring my old clothes here, they're too small for me. Maybe Ciel will be able to wear it.", "Well, then, I am going to heat up the dinner. You can come down for five minutes.", "Okay, mom." Sebastian said and smiled to his mother before she closed the door. Beth opened her suitcase and pulled out the fresh shirt to change into since Marcus drooled the one she was wearing. The thing that surprised her the most was that every room in the house had its own bathroom. And from what she heard, they had 5 of them. "Don't tell me the sinks and toilets are from marbles, please." She told to Sebastian who was putting the clothes from suitcases into his old closet. "Only the ones downstairs and in guest rooms." Beth's eyebrows raised and her mouth almost opened. "Seriously?", "No." he answered and laughed. "But dad was thinking of changing them.", "Holy Jesus…" Beth grumbled while opening the door of the bathroom. It contained a bathtub with a shower, sink with a mirror above it and a toilet. Beth wasn't sure why she sighed, but she quickly washed her face with soap that smelled like roses and removed that awful smell of dog's drool.  
Sebastian's room was quite large; probably the others were, too. The bed was as large as the one in New York. Windows, which were spread from the floor to the ceiling, were covered with dark blue curtains and perfectly matched with the color of sheets. On one wall, closer to the window, was a work desk, and on other big shelf filled with books and all kinds of toys and stuff. The one that caught Beth's attention was a Pokeball. "No shit!", "What?" Sebastian turned to see what Beth was talking about. "You have a Pokeball! And it's not just some copy, it's a master ball they were selling in 1999, only in -", "Mentioned stores." He finished her sentence and hugged her waist from behind. "You lucky bastard, I only managed to buy a monster ball and when I played with it, it broke.", "You weren't very tender with toys.", "I was 5 years old, what do you expect?", "I don't know, but I was careful with mine. I still have Lego sets." A smirk appeared on his face when Beth looked at him with a surprised face. "Yes, we will play whenever you want.", "Really?" Beth asked in a way a 5-year-old would. "Yes." Sebastian answered and kissed her head. "But let's eat first, you're probably starving.", "Kind of."  
While she was walking in front of him, he kept watching the back of her head. Well, actually the part where her hair used to be. "If you try harder, maybe you'll make a hole in my head." Beth teased him when noticed he was staring. "I can't get use to your hair yet. I miss the way it was.", "Grow yourself one, then. Know the struggle.", "Well, maybe I will."

In the dining room, when food was on the table ready to be eaten, Vincent and Rachel walked in from the kitchen at the same time as Beth and Sebastian. Everyone almost synchronized sat down, with the males pulling out chairs for their women. Manners at its finest.  
"So, Elizabeth, how did you and Sebastian meet?" Vincent asked while grabbing mashed potatoes in his plate and passing them to his wife. "The first time was in school and later we realized we were neighbors." Her mouth spread in a wide smile as she was quickly remembering how it was last year. "You were a teacher?" Rachel's voice made her come back to reality. "Uh, no, I was a student. We became a couple when I graduated and confessed to him.", "You confessed? Shame yourself, Sebastian." Sebastian confused turned to his father with 'what-did-I-do' expression. "It's not my fault she confessed first." He muttered and Beth smiled once again. She most certainly didn't know that. 

While walking to her and Sebastian's room after dinner and small chatting with his family, Beth stopped in front of family pictures that took over almost whole wall in the hall on the second story. In the middle, on the biggest picture there was, were Vincent, Rachel, Sebastian and Ciel together, proudly representing the Michaelis family. Around it were smaller pictures of everyone. "Who is this?" Beth asked Sebastian about the boy in the picture. He looked young, maybe 17, with short hair that was up, but the edges were starting to fall down. Red eyes and pale skin, Beth though it was some cousin of his. "Uh, me." He answered as if it was obvious. Staring at the picture from up close didn't make any difference to Beth; she still couldn't hide the surprise from her face. "W-wait, really? You? This? Holy shit…", "I was young too, you know.", "You look adorable, my God. Oh, especially here!" she commented at the picture of him as a 1-year-old baby in a little suit under which wrote 'Sebastian'. "I can show you an album if you want to.", "Gladly.", "Tomorrow. Now let's go to bed." Beth obediently followed him to their room, realizing she was tired. 

After Beth showered first, she found that Lego set Sebastian was talking about and actually played with it while he was showering. Wandering through his shelf and drawers, Beth found a stash of Pokemon cards, a discman, Nintendo 64 and even a furby. "You have a freaking furby?" she asked as soon as the bathroom door opened and Sebastian walked out wearing boxers. "So you found Frizzle." He said while sitting next to Beth, looking from Lego board she played with to the other stuff she dig out of his drawers. "Frizzle? You called him Frizzle?", "Well, yeah. Because of his hair right here." He showed the strand of hair on the blue furby with blue eyes. "I called mine Gizmo.", "And she calls me crazy." He whispered to 'Frizzle' while smiling. "Although he was black and white with red eyes, the more I stared at him, the more he looked like Gizmo from Gremlins and there you go." After a laugh and sigh, Sebastian stood up. "Come, my Gizmo." He said to Beth and reached his hand to her to help her stand up. "No?" he asked when Beth shook her head. Beth almost screamed when he grabbed her and threw on the bed like she didn't weigh more than a feather. When she landed on the bed and bounced two more time almost falling down, Sebastian stopped her by grabbing her waist. "You need to control your strength, maniac." Beth told him with her heart beating fast and laughing between her breaths. "And you need to put on some weight. It's like I'm carrying a child.", "I cannot believe you're telling me to get fat…" Beth murmured to herself while getting under covers. Sebastian turned off the lights and hugged Beth. "I love you." He said and kissed her head.  
While lying pressed against Sebastian, Beth absorbed the warmth of his body and the covers and slowly relaxed her muscles. She twitched when Sebastian's hand gently touched her stomach and began warming it. Unconsciously, she put her hand over his and thought about her disability to bear a child. With that on her mind, she fell asleep.

* * *

"No sugar? Are you sure?" Beth laughed when Vincent was surprised she drank black coffee. What was so strange about it? "Completely."  
As usual, Sebastian and Beth woke up early. Getting up early was Beth's habit she got over two years of living alone, but Sebastian had it since childhood; it was a part of his upbringing. While watching Vincent, Rachel and Sebastian cheerfully talking and laughing in the early morning, looking all fresh and neat, Beth was amazed. She looked like crap in the morning while they looked like they've come out of some magazine. Not fair.  
"When is Ciel coming?" she heard Sebastian asking and then shut off everything except him in her sight. He was casually leaned with his elbows on the table and drank coffee from his cup. The white shirt on him stretched every time he spread out his hand to take a cookie from a bowl that was between the four of them on the table. But Beth's favorite place to look at on Sebastian was his eyes. His crimson red eyes that looked into your very soul if they wanted to. And as if they felt like being watched, they turned to Beth. Without realizing, Beth was smiling like an idiot while watching Sebastian and he smiled at her before turning his head back to his parents. 

Three hours later, when Ciel came and greeted with Sebastian and Beth, he, Sebastian and Vincent went to the meeting, while Rachel and Beth stayed together and started making lunch.  
"Uhm, Rachel? Can I tell you something?", "Of course, Beth." Beth made Rachel call her 'Beth' and not 'Elizabeth' since it's shorter and more practical. "I know you don't like me and all, but I need someone to… say…", "Oh, Beth. Was that how you thought of me?" Rachel put down the bowl with flour in it and sat on one of the bar stools and showed to Beth to do the same. When Beth sat down, Rachel continued. "Sebastian, no matter how capable of a man he seems, always had problems with finding girls. How should I put it… they always used him and were with him because of his money, but he, of course, being a sweetheart didn't see that. That's when I had to butt in, but it was too late. Since the last one, he was on the so -called 'pause' and was single until now. I may seem harsh, but I definitely am not." Beth felt red in face and didn't know where to look. "I feel stupid now." Beth awkwardly said and scratched the back of her head when Rachel gently caressed her shoulder and made her calm down. "Ignore me for now. What did you want to say?" Beth truly did calm down and took a deep breath before talking. She was never the kind of person who would share her problems, but this one really bothered her. "The other day, I was on a check up and my doctor told me I'm infertile. I still didn't tell Sebastian and I don't know if I even will. But every time I look at him, I feel bad because I know I won't be the one who will carry on those beautiful genes of his. I feel sad because I know some other wom-" Rachel suddenly stopped Beth from talking by hugging her and crying on her shoulder. "Please stop." Beth stiffed and didn't know what to do so she just tapped Rachel's shoulders. "Rachel, why are you crying?" she asked while her heart raced fast. It was not her plan to make Rachel cry. "Sorry! I'm sorry… I only-" when she started crying even harder, Beth slightly panicked and ripped off a piece of paper towel and gave it to Rachel. Then, to calm her down, she hugged her and told her everything is going to be fine.  
After a minute or two, maybe even five, Rachel calmed down and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, but I'm a horrible crybaby. I remember when Sebastian was born, I was so happy that we finally started a family. It was the same with Ciel. And now, when you told me… what you told me, I… yeah. Also,", she paused for a second to blow her nose and then continued, "don't even think about Sebastian leaving you. We did not raise our boys to act like that. He would never leave you for something like that. I noticed your looks this morning; Vincent and I sometimes look at each other like that. But, you need to decide when to tell him by yourself. He still has to know."  
Beth felt respect from the bottom of her heart for the woman in front of her and thought of her as a second mother.

* * *

Hey, people.  
Merry Christmas (yeah, I'm late) and a happy New year (yeah, I'm early, but it's 2015 here in Europe)  
I hope you have a good holidays and I hope you get a lot of rest. I'm sure as hell I won't get it.

Enjoy :)


	28. Again

While cooking lunch and baking a cake with Rachel, Beth was forced to tell her life story to Rachel on which she almost started crying. Again. Beth started wondering if there was something they could talk about without making Rachel cry. "So, uh, how did you and Vincent meet? If I may know." There was a pause until she heard her sniffling. 'You're kidding me, right?' Beth asked herself while turning to Rachel, ready to apologize for asking. "Ugh, don't worry, I was cutting onions. They always make me cry.", 'Why am I not surprised? Stop it, Beth, you're being bitchy. Wait, I have an idea; why don't you ask her to lend you some of her feelings, since you got none?' Beth stopped peeling carrot she was holding and sighed. Seriously, was she just…? Jesus, it's been a long time since she talked to herself.  
"We met in high school. I remember it as it was yesterday. Vince was rebellious, but also did well at school. It all started when he sat behind me and kept poking me in the back with his pen until I took it from him and broke in half. He didn't leave me alone since then." Rachel said with a smile and maybe even chuckled while remembering. "You are together since high school?", "Yes. As I said, he didn't leave me alone. We even went to the same college together. He was quite a pest in the beginning, but once I got to know him…" and now she giggled. "That is so nice to hear." Beth commented and continued peeling the carrot. It really was. When you're with someone you met as a girl and you love each other even after all those years behind you… Cute as hell.

By the time boys came back from the meeting, Rachel and Beth were done with the lunch.  
"Welcome home, darling. How did the meeting go?" Rachel greeted her husband while Beth rushed to hug Sebastian; she felt an urge to hug him tightly. "I'm glad you're back." She muttered into his shoulder and kissed him. "Did something happen?" he asked confusedly on which Beth simply shook her head. "No, I'm just happy you're here, that's all.", "Hey, Ciel! Oh, how great you're here, I missed you!" everyone turned to Ciel's awful imitation of a girly voice and gave him a questionable look. "What? I want someone to welcome me, too." He answered and went upstairs to his room to change clothes. "Yeah, I think I'll change, too.", "Can't wait to eat, I'm starving." Vincent and Sebastian talked mutually while walking upstairs. "Well, I'm about to set the table.", "I'll help."

* * *

Not even half an hour passed after lunch when guests arrived. Beth wasn't sure if it was arranged or not, but they sure were family. "Elizabeth, this is my sister, Francis Midford, her husband Alexis Leon, son Edward and her daughter, your namesake Elizabeth." Vincent introduced his family to Beth. "Hello, I'm Elizabeth Brant, it is nice to meet you." She introduced herself and smiled at each of them. When they sat down on the couch and started talking about general themes, Beth studied each of them. Francis, if she remembered correctly, seemed as a strict woman mainly because of her indifferent face and upright seating. Her blond hair was tied in a bun with one long, curled cowlick falling down. She wore beige Capri pants and a white sleeveless blouse, which made her look elegant. At least from Beth's point of view. Edward, her son, was kind of flustered and kept his head away from Beth, talking to Ciel about something. His sister, Elizabeth, looked very cute with her long, golden-blond curls falling down to her waist. To make the image perfect, she wore slight pink dress which reached her knees and the matching shoes. Beth felt weird calling a 20-year-old girl cute, but damn it. At least she looked 20. And to finish her study, the father, Alexis, was the most relaxed one in the family. He was cheerful and casually talked to Vincent, laughing his heart out. His hair was grey, but had indications of blond hair.  
"Beth, could you come and help me, please?" Rachel kindly asked Beth and she nodded while standing up and followed her to the kitchen.

"Okay, quick introduction." Rachel said in a lower voice than usual while preparing tea and coffee. "Francis seems stringent, but is actually quite respectful, if you're consistent of being respected, though. She's a sincere critic and doesn't know to embellish the truth. Deal with it somehow. Her husband, Alexis… everyone calls him Alex, except Francis; she calls everyone by their full name. Anyway, Alex is in one word, carefree, since Francis is there to take care of everything." Beth wasn't sure why was Rachel telling her about them, but she was thankful; not everyone would do that.  
As Rachel kept talking, Beth opened the cookies Rachel handed her and shook them out into the bowl. "Edward is proud, just like his mother, but can't quite 'stand' girls. Especially those like you. And me." To simplify the sentence, Rachel showed with her eyes to Beth's breasts. "Oh… Well, that explains a lot.", "Yeah. And Elizabeth, who everyone calls 'Lizzy', is kind of childish, despite her age. She is 19, in case you wondered and Edward is 21." Rachel finished with preparing beverages and talking at the same time and sighed at the end. "They always drink the same, so there is no point in asking." She smiled and gave one tray to Beth, on which were cups with tea and cookies while she carried the other one, with coffee, sugar and milk.

* * *

"It's on, Michaelis.", "Go for it, Midford." Francis and Vincent were staring at each other, ready to start their round of arm wrestling. "Ready…go!" Rachel, the judge, gave the signal and two siblings started. "Is this for real?" Beth, still not believing what happened in the past minute, asked Sebastian who was watching with an amusement. "It sure is. Every time they start quarreling about something, it turns out like this." It began with Vincent proposing swimming in the pool and Francis disagreeing. Then they were divided in two teams for arm wrestling; Michaelis and Midford. Beth, instead of being a judge, was in the Michaelis team. They even got numbers.  
"Your family is weird. I like it." Beth whispered to Sebastian and he hugged her around the waist and watched the match like that.  
Cries like 'You can do it, mom!' and 'You're doing great!' were going on for a minute until Vincent won and smirked to his sister. "Strong as ever." He complimented her while standing up. "You're no worse than me.", "Match number two. Who is next?" Rachel announced seriously, like a real judge. Next were Alex and Ciel. Beth thought that Ciel was going to win, but the old man was tougher than he looked; their match was on for 10 seconds. "Match number three.", "I'm sorry, Lizzy, I'm not making it personal." Sebastian apologized to Lizzy before they started, there were no questions about this one. At least he pretended he was struggling. Adorable.  
"Match number four." This one was Beth's and Edward was her opponent. 'We're going to lose this one.' She said to herself as she sat in front of the coffee table they set up for this show. Edward's palm was sweaty, but his grip was firm. As soon as Rachel gave the signal, they began, but their hands were still in the same position as on the start. 'Okay, I'm not that strong and he's not that weak.' It got suspicious to Beth since Edward was the same age as her so it was logical he'd be stronger. But then it occurred to her. She remembered Rachel's words about him and his weakness, if it could be called a weakness. She heard cheers for her and Edward and slightly smiled. This family sure knows how to have fun.  
Now, Beth's not a dirty player, but this was for the sake of team Michaelis… or at least she was assuring herself in that. She leaned a bit forward, acting as if she's trying hard to win and waited for the moment. When Edward lowered his look and gasped sharply, Beth quickly pinned his arm to the table and secured the victory. "Team Michaelis wins."  
"It was fun while it lasted." Vincent said with a victorious smile on his face. "Now everyone go change, it's time for a rougher game."

"You knew, didn't you?" Sebastian's question reached Beth's ears and she turned to him with a confused look. There was a cunning smile on his face and she knew what he was talking about. "Excuse me?" she asked, pretending she didn't understand while tying her bathing suit in their room. "You can stop playing innocent now, we're alone." Tiny tingling went down her spine when his breath tickled Beth's earlobe as he was helping her with tying. Her simple smirk revealed her and Sebastian's pretentious laughter echoed through the room. "I knew it. Playing dirty, huh? Did mom tell you? While you were 'helping' her earlier?", "Oh, shut up." She said with a smile and slightly hit him in the ribs with her elbow.  
"By the way." Beth said before Sebastian left to the bathroom. "Yes?", "Have I ever told you how I love your calves?", "My… calves?" he asked, looking at the back of his legs. "Yeah. They're so… round and… fleshy. Very attractive.", "Don't stare, you're embarrassing me! Pervert!" he yelled and rushed to the bathroom while Beth was laughing. "Idiot."

* * *

"Yeah, I knew it." Sebastian murmured while looking at the net on the middle of the pool that Vincent set up. "Water volleyball?" Beth asked while putting her towel over one of the chairs that were next to the pool. "Yes. And in case you want your towel to be dry, put it in the safer distance." She listened what he said and put their towels closer to the door. The pool was inside the house, rectangular shape with blue tiles that gave the impression of one of those competition pools. The room the pool was in had glass windows and door that gave view of the backyard. In two corners were large, green houseplants. All in all, it was charming.  
After everyone showed up, they had to draw numbers, again, so they could be divided in two teams, justly. Beth was with Sebastian, Ciel and Lizzy; Vincent, Francis, Alex and Edward were in the other team while Rachel was the judge. 'The fuck is going on with this family?' Beth wondered while looking at the males. They were all tall and well-toned, even Francis. As if they were athletes. Which, in their case, wouldn't be surprising.  
The other team served first, but the ball went off the court. "Sorry! It's been a long time since I played." Francis apologized and got ready for another serve. For some strange reason, Beth felt like some blood will be spilled. Luckily, she knew how to play since their P.E. teacher made them play either volleyball or basketball back in high school.  
For the first five minutes, the other team was in lead up to 4 points until the tables have turned and the luck passed to Beth's team. Lizzy, despite her feminine figure, had a strong kick and, along Ciel and Sebastian, secured few points. Beth managed to hit only 5 or 6 balls since one of her teammates snatched her chance of hitting. Those people were brutal. The water in the pool reached their lower chest so it was easy to jump, which gave them chance to jump high and hammer the ball into the opponent's court.  
Before the end of the match, Vincent called for time-out so they could plan their strategy. Beth's team did the same. There wasn't a lot of negotiation; they just changed the positions and… yeah, they only did that. Beth and Ciel were in front, while Sebastian and Lizzy were behind them. The last serve of the game went to Francis who shot it to Ciel. Instead of hitting it back, he tossed it to Beth, much to her very own surprise. To use her chance, she jumped and hit the ball, aiming for the surface of the water. "Edward!" someone shouted before the ball hit him in the middle of the face. "I'm okay." Edward uttered while holding his nose. Only now occurred to Beth why she was on the front line; so Edward would stare at her while she was jumping and forget about everything else.  
"We won!" a group consisting of three people, Sebastian, Lizzy and Ciel, happily celebrated their victory while Beth was watching them with disapproval. "Brats, you did that on purpose." She said, looking at each of them, especially Sebastian who must have been the brain of that plan. "But hon, you already got used to playing dirty. You should be proud." Sebastian said with a mocking voice to Beth and ended up splashed with water.

* * *

"Rain? But it was so sunny yesterday." Beth said when she came to the kitchen the next morning and looked out the window, only to see rain pouring down. "Well, crap. And I meant to take you sightseeing today." Sebastian said while standing next to her. "Sorry, kids, but the weather here is changeable. You already forgot, Sebastian?", "I guess." He shrugged his shoulders and took a sip of coffee, still staring outside.  
Their stuff were already in the suitcases, ready to go, but will have to wait until lunch.  
"Vince, could you go to the town, please? I'm out of milk and I really need it.", "Oh, don't worry mom, I'll go. I meant to go after, but since you need milk…", "Fine, I don't care who goes, just bring me my milk." Rachel impatiently said and rushed him to go. Beth, who was sitting at the table, had an awful feeling storming in her body and her leg was restlessly bouncing up and down.

It's been 45 minutes since Sebastian left. Beth thought she was being paranoid because he didn't come back yet, but Rachel and Vincent started to worry, too. She asked Vincent how many minutes were there to reach the town and when he said 10, she couldn't sit anymore. Vincent was reading newspapers, but would often turn his look to the window. Everyone twitched when the phone suddenly started ringing. Rachel quickly answered and Beth intensely listened to her conversation. "Yes, you did. I am. What about him? He's what?!" Now Vincent stood up, too and turned to Rachel, as same as Beth. Her heart seemed as it was going to explode from how fast it was beating. This situation seemed like déjà vu of what happened 2, no, 3 years ago.  
Rachel barely put the phone back into its place while she covered her mouth and leaned on the wall, with tears flowing down her face. "Rachel! Rachel! What happened? Who was it?" Vincent asked while leading Rachel to the nearest chair so she could sit down. "They called… from the hospital… They… they said Sebastian… car crash…" she couldn't talk anymore. Crying and sobbing took over her.  
Beth thought she was going to throw up. Her knees buckled and she ended up on floor, breathing heavily. It was happening again.

* * *

Yay, we're reaching the end. Just a little more, you can do it :)


	29. Life goes on

Everything happened too fast. Beth was sitting on the floor catching breath and realized Rachel didn't say Sebastian died nor how serious the accident was, which meant that he was still alive and the doctors were saving him. "We have to go there. Rachel, he is not dead, you hear me? He is not dead!" Beth practically yelled at Rachel while standing up and calming down. Rachel looked at her with her teary eyes and nodded once. Vincent started talking, but Beth wasn't quite listening; she only knew she had to take Rachel into the car.  
"Beth… what is going to happen if he-", "He definitely will not die." Beth assured Rachel and herself in that. As if she will lose another person she loves the same way. "He can't die."

When they arrived to the hospital, Beth only had to follow Vincent while helping Rachel; they didn't want her to pass out. She let Rachel sit down in the waiting room while Vincent went to the information desk. "Rachel! Rachel, I just heard!" a woman with red, short hair and red eyes, wearing one of those medical scrubs was approaching them. Beth didn't know who she was, but she was obviously a doctor. "What happened? How is he? Tell me!" Rachel quickly stood up as soon as she saw her. "Calm down first, he is stable, out of life danger." Rachel and Beth heaved a sigh of relief and Beth shut her eyes. The doctor quickly glanced at Beth and then back to Rachel. "He was driving behind a log truck when the truck suddenly stopped and few logs fell off, with one hitting Sebastian's car. Firemen had to come to pull him out of the car. As far as I know, his pelvic is fractured.", "They're still operating him?" Beth asked since Rachel was quiet. "Ah, yes. They're about to move him to the operating room and I'm one of the assistants." Beth nodded and bit her lip, hoping that everything will be fine, even though he was stable.

* * *

4 hours later, there were still no news from the doctors. Rachel was sleeping, leaned on Vincent; they had to give her a tranquilizer so she doesn't become mad. While Beth and Vincent were sitting there, waiting. Beth would go and bring them coffee or something to eat from the vending machine and that was all they did.  
The clock on the wall showed '6:34' when the surgeon came out and told about Sebastian's condition. By then, the Midfords and Ciel came and waited along with Beth and Vincent. The surgeon, older man who looked exhausted, said that they had to amputate his lower right leg since it was completely smashed and couldn't be healed. The pelvic was only slightly fractured and didn't have to be operated because it will normally heal, but he won't be able to walk until it does. There were no internal organ injuries, only bruises and scratches. He had a lot of luck.  
Before the surgeon left, Beth asked him if they could see him. "Not for at least 2 more hours." He answered with 'I'm sorry' look on his face and then left them.

There was no force on Earth that could persuade Beth in going back to the house. The Midfords reluctantly left only because Vincent, Rachel and Beth were there, but Beth would rather chain herself to the hospital than left before seeing Sebastian. Even though Rachel and Vincent said they would come back later, Beth refused. She apologized to them, but stayed there. No matter how tired, sleepy or hungry she was, she decided to stay. So Rachel and Vincent let her be; they weren't her parents so they couldn't tell her what to do. Talking was useless.

* * *

Beth waited and waited, for 3 hours she waited until they finally let her in to see Sebastian.  
He was lying peacefully on the table, with all kinds of tubes attached to his fingers, nose and chest. Around his neck was one of those neck supporters. His heart beat was normal, blood pressure too, only he was not. The surgeon did say he had bruises and scratches, but didn't say how many. On his face were two scratches; short one on his cheek and a longer, about 3 inches on his jaw line, plus a black eye. His left lower arm was wrapped in bandages; he must have protected his face with it. On the right arm was only a big bruise. Beth couldn't see anything else since he was covered with a sheet and didn't want to move it, but she could see where the end of his right leg was; just a little below his knee. She gently took his hand into her and caressed it. Not even a twitch came from her when the door of the room opened and someone was standing beside her. "He sure did have a lot of luck." Beth heard Vincent's voice and nodded her head. "Rachel is at home, asleep. I asked Angelina when he is going to wake up. She said maybe tomorrow, maybe in three days, it depends." Once again, Beth nodded. "You do realize you need to rest?", "Yes.", "And if you don't go, that the nurses are going to throw you out?", "Yes.", "Well, I'm here to prevent that from happening. Come on, we'll visit him tomorrow." Vincent said and put hands on her shoulders. Beth sighed and stood up from the chair she was sitting in. Before she left with Vincent, she kissed Sebastian's forehead. "Nh…" A moan-like sound came out of him, but nothing else. "Come, let him rest."

On their way back to the house, Vincent promised Beth they'd go early the next morning, as soon as visits are allowed and Beth thanked him.  
When they arrived, Beth refused to eat, saying she wasn't hungry and went to take a shower and go to sleep. The bed seemed like an endless space of mattress beneath her now that Sebastian wasn't there, but Beth comforted herself that everything will be better when he comes back.

"Still nothing from him." Vincent, who was transferring the news from Angelina, said to the gathered people in the room; Beth, Rachel, Ciel and Francis. They were there since morning, watching over Sebastian. Francis left first, then Ciel and Rachel and Vincent was the last one. Beth refused to go until it was 10 pm., time for visitors to go home.  
She didn't know when, but she fell asleep, with her head leaned on her right arm on bed while with other she held Sebastian's. Even in her half-sleep she could hear the beeping of the machine that showed Sebastian's heart beats, blood pressure and more of those things she didn't know about. Beth frowned when she heard the beeping became faster and felt moving on the bed. She opened her eyes and straightened up, only to see Sebastian awake. "You're a-" she had to clear her throat since she hasn't spoken with anyone that day and her voice got a little rusty. "You're awake." She repeated cheerfully, with a wide smile over her face. For a moment she forgot she was supposed to press the button to call the nurse; she was told to inform nurses when he wakes up.  
"Who are you? Where am I?" Sebastian asked after staring into her eyes for a few moments. Beth felt like all the blood left her face and she could feel how her heart skipped a beat and then started beating crazily.  
She didn't know what to say to him so she just stared at him until he smiled and started laughing. "I'm kidding you! Oh, you should have seen your face." Sebastian was smiling while Beth was ready to kill him. "You moron! This is hardly the time to joke around!" she started yelling at him, with her throat clenching which made it harder to yell. "You almost died!" His face got serious as he was looking at her more carefully. "Oh, my God. Beth, are you crying?" he asked in disbelief. "Yes, I am! Do you see what are you doing to me? Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" Beth yelled while crying and rubbing her eyes like a little baby. "Not stupid movies, not the baby, not my parents, but you! You are making me cry. Do you know how scared I was?", "I wasn't quite at fault-" he managed to speak when she interrupted him. "Shut up! I don't care! I knew it that I should listen to my senses at least this time, but no! No! Who else just- Urgh! I'm so mad at you! You are so lucky you're even alive, you know that?! Idiot!" she knew she sounded like a spoiled brat, but it really needed to go out. "If you weren't lying here, I'd kick your ass so hard you'd be sorry you were even born!"

While listening to her lectures, Sebastian couldn't help but smile. Then he remembered a line from one song 'Even when you're crying you're beautiful too.' And it suited Beth at the moment so well that he wanted to tell her that, but maybe she would really beat him up.  
Yes, he was in pain, his body hurt all over and he couldn't currently move a muscle, but seeing her cry because of him was heartbreaking.  
"I love you." He said in the middle of her sentence. "I know. I love you too, but that doesn't-" she started crying even harder when two nurses came into the room. "Call doctor Burton." One of the nurses said when she saw Sebastian woke up, while the other approached Beth and asked her if she was alright. Then, she escorted her out to calm down, saying things like 'It's going to be fine' and 'Life goes on'.  
"Is that your wife?" the nurse that stayed asked Sebastian while measuring his temperature. "Not yet."

When Beth said through crying she was fine and the nurse left, she sent Vincent a message that Sebastian woke up. If she called him, she'd only cry and couldn't speak, so this was a lot easier.  
Five minutes later, Rachel and Vincent came and Beth was still crying; now that she started, she couldn't stop. She even got a headache from crying.  
"I'm fine, everything is fine. The doctor is inside, you can go in.", "Are you sure-", "Yes, yes I am. Just go." Beth showed with her hand at them while they were confused about her.  
Beth, on the other hand, couldn't stop. When the sobbing would stop, a simple picture of Sebastian in her mind would start it all over again. People walked by, minutes were passing. Then the doctor and the nurse walked out of the room and Beth was trying to take deep breaths, but would eventually sob. She was acting like a kid whose mom beat him up and Beth knew it, but couldn't control herself. Her crying burst-out almost became comic. Finally, she went to the toilet and washed her face with cold water.  
It worked. While leaning on the sink and letting the drops of water fall down her face into the sink, she closed her eyes and deeply sighed. It was over now, everyone was safe and sound.

Before she entered the room, Beth fixed her hair and sighed. Her eyes were red from crying, but it didn't matter anymore.  
Rachel and Vincent turned their heads to her and Sebastian only directed his eyes. "Well, we'll leave you be and inform others." Rachel said and patted Sebastian's head, like mothers usually do. "Take care, son."  
As soon as they closed the door, Beth sat on the chair next to the bed. "Let's begin from the start. How are you feeling?" She asked, studying his face. "Better now that you're here." A smile followed his answer. "No, seriously. Does your hip hurt? And what about your leg?" it really wasn't the time for jokes. "Honestly, I can't move and it hurts like shit. This stupid neck supporter is really tight and my neck itches so hard I want to die, but it can't go off yet. And my leg… I'm gonna miss it. Now you won't be able to look at my gorgeous calf anymore." Beth stared at him with a stupid expression on her face, she could feel it; the mix of 'the fuck is wrong with you' and 'are you stupid' expressions. "I…I don't know if it's the drugs talking or what, but how can you be so calm about it? Not even your heart beat is changing pace." She asked dumbfounded, looking at the monitor. "Beth… it is gone. There is no point in mourning about it, we can't get it back. Life goes on." Beth brow twitched when he said the last line; she heard it enough from that nurse for whole life. "Also, doc gave me a CT scout of my leg, it's so cool. I'm glad I didn't feel it when it got smashed, though." Beth bit her lip so she doesn't start crying again and stood up. She couldn't sit anymore and walked to the window. It was dark outside so she could only see her reflection on the glass. "By the way, when you were yelling earlier…", "Don't expect me to apologize, because I won't. And I'm still mad.", "Right, I know, but it's not that. You were saying something about 'not movies, not my parents, not the baby'. What baby?" Beth stiffened when he said that. 'Fuck! Why did I blurt it out?' "Fine." She paused and inhaled. Since he already heard… "There is no baby nor there will ever be a baby in here." She put a hand over her stomach. "I'm infertile. I can't carry a child, ever." A tear was rolling down her face, but was quickly wiped with hand. She heard the beeping noise was beeping faster and only looked at his reflection in the window. He looked shocked and his eyes were wide-opened, as far as it was possible since one was swollen.  
"Don't worry. It's going to be fine. You'll see."

* * *

Ugh, I hate this chapter so much. It's so blurgh.

Anyway, sorry because I made everything happen so fast here, I only wanted to get rid of it ASAP.

When was the last time you cried? But cried cried, the one when you cry your heart out and don't care who can hear you.  
My burst out was two years ago while watching One Piece. The part with Ace's death and Luffy's past. I cried for, like, two hours and every time I heard the 14th opening song, 'Fight together'. It still brings some tears today, God damn it.

One (maybe two) more chapter/s and it's over. Can't wait :)


	30. Honey, I'm

**8 YEARS LATER**

"Good morning, Sassy." Beth greeted and gently petted the black cat that was rubbing himself against her feet, like any other morning. Before making coffee, she put food into his eating bowl and then watched while he was approaching the given food.

His name was the exact opposite of how he really was; slow, lazy, maybe little stupid and cuddly. Plus, he was plain black with green eyes and really fluffy – the best animal ever. There was nothing that could be done about him being fat; he was like that since he was a kitten. Putting him on diet would be utterly absurd. And his stupidity… well, maybe he ran into glass door while running, but that didn't matter anymore.

Sassy would first look at his surroundings, come few steps closer, stop, adjust himself and then jump in front of his bowl. "Pfft, weirdo." Beth would mock him every morning after he did that on which he would give her pleading look. "Don't be a wuss, you know I'm joking.", "Meow." Was his answer as he kept eating. "Why am I even talking to you?"  
"And you call him a weirdo." Beth heard a voice behind her and got up from the squatting position. "Morning, hubby." She kissed her husband with a smile and went to finish the coffee. "Hmph, I wondered where my shirt disappeared." Sebastian said when noticed Beth was wearing his shirt. "Sorry, it was the first thing I found on the floor." She smirked when remembered she was the one who took it off from him and threw it somewhere behind her last night.  
"If you found nothing on the floor, would you wear that?", "I don't know. You need to find out.", "Challenge accepted."  
"By the way," Beth paused while putting Sebastian's cup of coffee in front of him and smiled at the letters on it which showed 'World's okayest husband',  
"I'm doing groceries today. Need anything?", "We're out of duct tape.", "It's on the list. Next.", "Light bulbs.", "That too. And yes, LED, I know.", "Clever girl. Oh, and-", "You know what?" Beth jumped off the black bar stool she was sitting on and gave Sebastian a shopping list from the fridge. "Here, check it out. I'll go get the newspapers.", "Thank you, honey."

While walking to the porch of their house to get the newspapers, Beth glanced at the pictures of Sebastian and her that were hanging on the wall along the staircase. In the middle was a big one of them on their wedding, while around it were also the pictures of them, taken through the 8 years they were together.

The cold morning air pinched her skin as soon as she opened the door. The newspapers weren't on the porch, but on the lawn. Even after 5 years of living in the new house, Beth hoped she'd see them lying on the doorstep, right in front of the door, but no. The paperboy is obviously a girl who doesn't know how to throw properly.  
Beth cursed the cold weather as she quickly picked up the papers from the wet grass.  
"Good morning Mrs. Michaelis!" Beth heard a boy's voice before she managed to enter the house. "Morning Benny!" she turned on her right to greet the neighbor's kid Benny who was standing on the balcony in his pajamas. How is he not cold? Actually, his full name was Benjamin, but he liked being called Benny since it's shorter. She was the same.  
"Why are you up so early, Benny?", "I couldn't sleep." 'One of the few.', "Is that so?" Beth asked while moving from one leg to another. She really wanted to go inside, but didn't want to be rude to Benny; he was a nice and cute kid and sometimes played games with her and Sebastian, although he was only 7.  
"Is that your pajamas?" he asked and pointed on her/Sebastian's shirt. Beth laughed and shook her head. "Can we play today, too?", "Uh, sure thing, but later, okay?", "Okay! Bye!", "Bye, Benny!" she waved at him and rushed into the house, trembling from the cold.

"Warm me up, warm me up." Beth said to Sebastian as soon as she entered the kitchen and sat into his lap, pressing against his chest. "Don't tell me it's cold outside." He joked and embraced her with his arms. "Oh, hush. Benny kept me from going inside. He's coming over today, just so you know.", "Cool, we can play Twister.", "We played that last Saturday.", "So what? It's better than the most of new games these days.", "Let him choose.", "Fine. Also, you didn't write toothpaste on the list.", "It's right under the soap.", "Damn it.", "Sucker. Then I suppose you don't need anything else.", "No, you got it all.", "Good. How's your leg today?" she straightened up to look at his prosthetic leg.  
"Great, it doesn't hurt.", "Then that means…" Beth said as the wide smile appeared on her face. "Yes." Sebastian confirmed her unfinished sentence, but they knew what the thing was about.  
"Nerf war Saturday!" They said simultaneously and smiled to each other. "The loser takes out garbage for a month, no excuses.", "Deal. And the winner?", "He… hmph. I don't know.", "Me neither. Should I get the jar?", "Yeah." Beth nodded her head and got off from Sebastian's lap to get their 'Winner's jar'. It was made exclusively for their game days. Every time they thought of something, they wrote it on the paper and threw into the jar.  
"Okay, you pull out the paper." She handed him the jar since it was his turn this Saturday. "The winner…" he stopped while struggling with opening the folded paper. "The winner gets to decide what the loser is going to wear for one whole day. Anything." Sebastian read out loud and smirked at Beth. "Deal." She simply said and smiled at him, already creating ideas.

"Fuck, it's already 8. I don't want to get stuck in the crowd." Beth said almost panicked after looking at the time on the oven. She quickly drank the coffee from her cup and headed to put on clothes, but felt Sebastian pulling her shirt. "Aren't you forgetting something?" he asked, still holding the shirt. "Oh, geez…" Beth sighed and came back to kiss him. "You're such a baby sometimes.", "So?", "Nothing. You think of letting go now?" When he shook his head in sign of disapproval, Beth somehow took off the shirt while he was still holding it. "Suck it!" she yelled while running naked to their room. "You will come back!"

Ever since Beth went to the town to do the shopping, she started feeling sick. Considering she didn't eat anything since yesterday's lunch on work, it wasn't surprising she was feeling sick. Knowing that Sebastian made breakfast, she quickly did the shopping and went back home.  
"I'm back!" she yelled while coming into the kitchen from the garage door, carrying shopping bags. "Already?" Sebastian asked, walking into the kitchen from the living room. "Yeah. Luckily, I came earlier because I just saw two buses, full of tourists, arrive in front of the store." She explained as Sebastian took the bags from her hands and put the groceries in the cabinets and shelves.  
When they were done, their breakfast started. Beth put the extra amount of French toast and bacon on her plate, but when she swallowed few bites of it, it started coming back. After practically throwing the fork from her hand and overturning the chair from the sudden rising, she ran to the bathroom to throw up.  
She really hated that disgusting feeling in her stomach and throat that tortured her muscles and lungs.  
"Beth? You alright?" Sebastian asked while crouching down next to her to help her throw it all up. "I'm sorry, your cooking is delicious and all, but currently I can't stand it right now.", "Were you okay yesterday?", "Yeah. I think it's because of the sandwich I ate yesterday at work. It smelled fishy, but I was starving.", "Oh, you dummy. Here." He said and handed her a glass of water he filled. She nodded and thanked him, then slowly sipped the water.  
When the nausea stopped, she brushed her teeth to get rid of that disgusting taste in her mouth while Sebastian made her regular toast. At first, she was eating slowly, but then started faster and faster, adding butter, jam and peanut butter to it, all together. "I think I'll stick to light food today.", "Uh, sure…" Sebastian said, stunned with the things she put on her toast.

"Ready…", "Steady…", "Go!" Beth and Sebastian started playing their Nerf war game in the backyard after they set up the shelters and planks as walls to hide behind. Both of them had 10 darts and the one who gets hit 5 times loses. In the first 5 minutes Beth got hit 3 and Sebastian 4 times. The other 5 minutes Beth missed the chance to hit Sebastian by tripping and falling down, making him a winner when he hit her. Plus, he hit her in her butt cheek, twice.  
"God damn it!" she shouted and threw her blaster on the ground, rubbing the hit place. "Who's sucker now?", "…I am." Beth quietly said while sitting down. "I can't hear you." He cheerfully said while leaning down to face her. "I said I am." She repeated louder and pulled Sebastian towards her so he fell on top of her. "That's right. Your punishment starts today and my award… huh, I'll think about it." A sly smile appeared on his face before he kissed her.  
"Why can't we have fun like them, Jack?" Suzanne, Beth and Sebastian's neighbor who was watching with her husband that little game of theirs on her balcony while enjoying the fine Saturday afternoon, asked Jack. "Because every time I suggest something, you say it's stupid.", "Okay, it's not that stupid. It looks fun."

* * *

"Hey, does it seem to you I'm getting fatter?" Beth asked Sebastian one morning while she was putting on clothes. "This shirt wasn't this tight before.", "Well it was about time for you to get fat." He said while leaning his head to the right to thoroughly look at Beth. "Your hips are a bit wider, yes.", "I know, right? If this keeps on, I'll have to go… shopping. Ugh.", "It's not the end of the world, hon.", "I know.", "By the way, when is your appointment again?", "Wednesday, why?", "I'm just asking.", "Oh, okay."

* * *

"Hey, Beth. Mind if I join you?" one of the Beth's coworkers wanted to join her at the table. "Sure, sit down.", "What are you having?", "Mmh, hamburger, fries, tuna sandwich, cheese croissant and a banana. You?", "Okay… wow. I have a turkey sandwich. That was all that left.", "Want some of mine?", "Ooh, thank you. You bring your lunch from home?", "Mhm. Sebastian makes these before going to work.", "Lucky you. With a husband like that." She enviously said and bit into her sandwich. "You have no idea." Beth said and smiled. This reminded her of high school.

* * *

"Good afternoon." Beth greeted her gynecologist when he entered the room and did the same. "Elizabeth. How are you feeling?", "Suspicious.", "Why is that?", "My period is late again, about three weeks. I eat properly and healthy. I'm also getting fatter and eat enormously." She explained the thing so he doesn't have to ask a million questions. "Did you have sexual intercourse during those three weeks?", "No, we didn't want to take risks.", "Smart of you." He said and finished the check up. "Elizabeth, you might be pregnant." He said and looked at the papers, studying them, while Beth's heart started beating maniacally. She almost forgot how to breathe. "J-Just a moment there. You said that I was infertile, there is no way I can be pregnant." Beth confusedly said, breathing heavily. "I know. But your cervix shows clear signs of pregnancy. Were there any other symptoms? Like nausea, high temperature, tender breasts, not standing specific food?" the doctor counted some of the symptoms and Beth tried to recall what happened in the past four weeks, which was difficult considering the news she just heard. "Uh… I threw up once when I ate something for breakfast and I don't eat that anymore." She paused, trying to recollect her memories. "Take your time, calm down." The doctor gently said to her, patiently waiting. "My nipples are more sensitive and the veins on my breast are more visible than usual. Oh, and my hips are wider. And I think that's that.", "I see." He said and wrote something on the papers that were in front of him. "You'll need to take urine test. That way we'll know for sure."

* * *

Her doctor said the results will come in two days and that's when she should come again. When Sebastian asked her how it went and what did the doctor say, Beth said it's nothing unusual and that everything was fine. She hated lying to Sebastian, but until she finds out if she's pregnant or not, she's not going to tell him a thing. Or act strangely. At least she'll try not to act differently. But Sebastian notices even the slightest changes about her.

* * *

Friday after work, when she came to the hospital again, Beth was sitting nervously on the chair in front of the doctor's desk, waiting for him to come. Her palms were sweating, legs bouncing up and down, hands shaking; she was never that nervous in her whole life.  
When the door opened, she twitched and tried to breathe normally. "Good afternoon again." He calmly said and Beth greeted back. "The results came." Calm tone of his voice relaxed Beth just for a little bit, but he was a professional and that was in his jobs' description. "Congratulations. You are pregnant." Beth's heart stopped for a second or two and then started beating fast and loudly, she could hear it in her ears. She couldn't utter a single word, but only inhaled and exhaled large amount of air.  
"Are you completely sure?", "Completely. You are perfectly healthy, you have no bacteria in your system and you're pregnant for 5 weeks." Beth covered her mouth so she doesn't start screaming. "But how? I was infertile.", "Yes, about that. I asked some of my colleagues and other doctors about their opinions. Since you're my first patient with that problem in my whole career, I was certain it was permanent, but after I asked others, they said they had some patients who had the same problems. Ovaries recovered over time and were capable of producing eggs again. Sure, it takes time to recover, but in the end it recovers.", "Well, is there any danger in pregnancy?", "No. Unless you take care of yourself, there is no danger." Beth sighed in relief and leaned in the chair. Now, in which way should she tell Sebastian?

* * *

I bet you totally expected this :D  
What do you want it to be: a boy or a girl?


	31. Christmas present

As soon as she sat in her dark grey Audi r8, Beth started screaming from happiness. Sure, she was given weird looks from the passers-by, but she didn't care. To hell and everything, she just found out she was pregnant, after 8 years, she was pregnant.  
With her hands trembling, she started the car and went to the nearest store; she was going to need some body paint.

Today it was her turn to make dinner and for the starters she made buns in the oven. To secure some time before Sebastian came home from work, she made him go to the other part of the town to get her one thing from the specific store. Then she felt bad because she didn't even need it, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  
With buns, she made peas, pork ribs, baby carrots and baby corn so it indicates on the baby.

"Hey, hon, I'm home!" Sebastian, who finally got home, shouted from the kitchen. The table was set for eating and the kitchen smelled nicely, but no signs of Beth. "Hon?" he asked once again while taking off his jacket and putting it on the hanger. "I got that thing for you." Nothing.  
A faint sound of the TV reached his ears from the living room. Loosening the tie around his neck, he walked into the living room and found Beth there, sleeping in an armchair. An apron was still on her. She seemed happy and relaxed while sleeping, but he needed to wake her up. No matter how hungry she was, she always waited for him to come home so they could eat together.  
"Hey Chubby, wake up." He gently whispered into her ear and kissed her cheek. She slowly opened her eyes and rubbed them. "Oh, hey. Welcome back. I fell asleep, sorry.", "Really, there is no need for apologizing. Come, let's eat. I'm starving." Beth smiled and nodded, accepting his hand to help her stand up.

"Is today some special occasion?" Sebastian asked, looking from the prepared food to Beth. "No." 'Yes, you have no idea.', "Why?" Beth asked, trying hard not to smile. "Just… asking.", "Uh, damn. Could you please take buns from the oven? I left them inside so they stay warm.", "Sure. Why did you bother to make buns anyway? It just took your time and energy.", "I just felt like it." When he showed his back so he could do what she asked to, Beth covered her mouth in order not to laugh. She couldn't wait for the end of the day so she could finally tell him.

After watching a movie together, Beth pretended she was tired and said that she couldn't stay awake any longer. Well, there was some truth in that. "Already? But it's only 11.", "I'm sorry. I don't know what has gotten into me all of a sudden." Beth gave him an apologetic smile and kissed him; it was their routine to watch their favorite series together on Friday night, but she needed some time to prepare everything.  
When she disappeared out of his sight, Beth quickly went upstairs to the bathroom and took a shower. Then, while standing in front of the mirror, she took blue and red body paints colors and started writing on her body, starting from her shoulder- 'Kiss me here' and drew baby footsteps which connected the words on different places on her body.

The series ended and Sebastian headed to bathroom after turning the lights off. It wasn't that funny without Beth; he was laughing more at her than the series, to be honest.  
The bathroom smelled like Beth's favorite musk shower gel; even though it was her favorite, she used that one only sometimes, but smelled heavenly after using it.  
After doing his hygiene, he went to their bedroom, expecting it to be in dark, but instead both of the night lamps were turned on and Beth was sitting on the bed wearing the black nightie. It was short, only to cover her butt and perfectly pointed out her body. He was the one who bought it for her, although both of them knew she wasn't going to wear it; she slept naked most of the time.  
"Finally." Beth said with a sigh, but didn't seem angry. On the contrary, there was a smile on her lips. He liked where that was going.  
"I thought you were tired." Sebastian said with eyes narrowed while walking to his wardrobe. "Never mind that, I have a surprise." Beth stood up and turned to him. "Oh? What kind of surprise?" he closed the wardrobe door and approached Beth. Only from up close he saw something red and blue on her body. "What are those?", "It's up to you to find out.", "And what do I need to do to find out?", "Just follow the steps." Beth simply said with a smile and turned her back to him just to show him a card on the nightie on which said 'Take me off'. Sliding his hands along the smooth fabric on her body, he reached the end of it and slowly took it off, revealing Beth's half-naked body. On the top of her right shoulder with blue letters wrote 'Kiss me here' and a red arrow pointing the spot. He didn't need to be told twice. After leaving a small peck on her shoulder, he followed the tiny spots that were gradually becoming larger and ended up on the other shoulder on which wrote 'Here, too'. The next one was on her collar bone 'How about here?'  
Beth covered her stomach and waited till he went through all the marks. The final one was above her belly button where it wrote 'Hi, daddy! Can I have a kiss, too?' Sebastian, kneeling on the floor before Beth, stared at those words as if his life depended on it. Beth widely smiled, waiting for his reaction. He stared until tears filled his eyes and started flowing down his face. At last he kissed her stomach and hugged her, leaning his head on the same place he kissed. Seeing him cry made Beth cry, too. From happiness, of course.

7 AND A HALF MONTHS LATER  
CHRISTMAS EVE

"Sebastian, hurry up! I'm in need!" Beth, sitting on the couch and sweating like an idiot, shouted to Sebastian. The temperature in the house was above normal because Beth mustn't ever be cold, by Sebastian's orders.  
"In a moment!" he answered back and came a minute later, carrying plate with food. "Aw yes!" she cheered up after the first bite of her sandwich with peanut butter, turkey, pickles and ketchup. It has become her favorite sandwich since the 3rd month of pregnancy. "What else do you need?", "Nothing, sit down here." Beth said with a mouthful of food and showed with her head on the place next to her. Sebastian slowly sat down and Beth rolled her eyes; he's been too frightened if something could happen to her that was caused by him. When she entered the 8th month, he refused to sleep in the bed with her and slept on the couch instead, until she got mad at him and didn't speak with him. Then he came back.  
He also didn't let her do any work around the baby's room or any work at all. She was lucky if he even let her cook. Or shower alone.  
There were 2 hours until the Christmas and they were sitting in the living room, watching TV.  
"Ooh, bathroom." Beth suddenly said and got up with the help of Sebastian, then went to the toilet. It really was bothersome to go to the toilet every 15 minutes.  
While washing her hands, she felt something in her abdomen. At first she thought it was the baby moving, but realized it were contractions.  
"Sebastian!" she yelled, feeling uneasy. He burst in the bathroom a second later, looking what happened. "Hospital. It's happening." Beth simplified in few words and headed out to prepare for leaving. "Oh, my God, it's happening! Stay calm, stay calm Beth, you're gonna be fine. Oh, my God!" Sebastian started panicking and walking mindlessly around Beth. She stopped walking to look at him; she's never seen him like this before, but she saw this coming ever since the baby started growing.  
"Sebastian! Calm down, madman. We practiced this, remember? Now, will you please drive me to hospital?" she smiled and gently touched his cheek. "You can do this, you will not pass out, okay? Now go." He helped her put on the shoes and coat on. When he went to get the car, Beth took her bag, prepared for hospital, and locked the house.  
Sebastian was just coming out of garage and instead of stopping, he kept going. Beth just stood there and sighed, waiting for him to come back. She hoped he'd realize she wasn't there before he gets to the hospital. 'Should I cry or laugh?', "I married an idiot."

* * *

Yeah... promises and I are not good buddies, as you already know.  
Also, I can totally imagine Sebastian losing his mind when it comes to things like this.  
One more chapter, God damn it, one more.  
It should be the easiest, but it's not. Kill me.


	32. The end

A sudden sound of a garage door opening made Beth twitch as she was preparing dinner. „Oh, you're home already?" she asked her husband in surprise and kissed him after approaching him. "Already? I even think I'm late today." Sebastian responded and took his coat off. "Huh… Then I'm a little slow today. You might have eat something before dinner; it won't be finished for one more hour or so.", "I can wait. Is he asleep?" he asked, putting a soft smile on his lips. "Unsurprisingly-" at the same moment a crying sound came out of the baby-phone and the two newly parents turned their heads to it. "Not anymore." Beth finally said and wiped her hands into the apron to check on their son. "Don't bother, I'll go." He stopped her by putting hand on her shoulder and headed to the living room, where the baby currently was. "Okay, seems like he was awoken by your presence, anyway."  
Baby's cry didn't last long; it stopped as soon as he saw his daddy. Beth heard Sebastian calming him down and talking to him. She finally had a family.  
After finishing the dinner and setting up the table, Beth went to check on her two boys. They were both sleeping. Sebastian was lying on the couch with only his left leg on the floor and on his chest was sleeping Damon on his tummy, looking like a baby starfish. While she still had her chance, she took a picture of them and then gently picked Damon up and put him in the crib, kissing his black hair before doing so. With his 3 months, Damon was too calm for a baby. He was extraordinary peaceful, cried only when he woke up, probably because of a bad dream, ate a lot and slept a lot. He's sure to grow up into an interesting man.

* * *

"Why? Just tell me why. You promised.", "I just… I can't." Damon slowed his pace of walking when he noticed seriousness in his parents' tones; it was very unusual for them. He listened to their conversation while walking down the stairs and watching them quarrelling. Dad obviously did something, since mom was angry.  
"Mom? Dad? What is happening?" I asked them when finally got down. They turned their heads to me. Mom had a disappointed look on her face.  
"It's your father." I could hear my heart skipping a beat and then beating fast. "What? What are you talking about?", "He…" I was expecting the worst when I obviously should predict what happened next. "He found your cheat codes for the games. And you know what we said about them; only in extraordinary situations." I stared at them for about 5 seconds and felt as my jaw opened. This was so like them.  
"Oh, my fucking God, I am so done with you." I said and went to the kitchen to make some coffee to keep me awake for school project. "We love you, too!" they yelled to me while I still could hear them.  
By the time I made my coffee, I found mom and dad watching some movie on the TV, with the usual happy aura around them, followed with their uncontrollable laughs and comments. That was also like them.  
"Care to join, son?" dad's voice made me twitch. I didn't expect them to hear me since they were occupied with the movie. "Uh, no thanks. I have a project to make.", "It's for the next month. Relax a bit, will you?", "Yeah, come here, I'll make pop-corns." Mom said while standing up from her lying position on dad's chest. "Bring some Cheetos." Dad added before mom went to kitchen.  
It was true the project was for May… and the movie seemed pretty interesting, I could judge from all the laughs that I heard.  
I sighed and decided to watch the movie with them, there were times when I just felt sorry for not spending enough time with them. I placed my cup on the table and sat on the couch next to dad and a few second later mom came back. "What did I miss?" she asked and sat next to me, handing Cheetos to dad and one bowl of popcorn to me. "The Blondie got shot.", "No! I was cheering for him.", "In the shoulder.", "Oh… It's fine then. But I bet you the one with the eye patch will make it.", "Deal." Dad accepted the bet after a short pause and put a smirk on his lips. They had to make bets every time they watched a movie and then they'd get their 'Winner jar' and did the things they drew out of it. As far as I knew, they were doing that ever since I can remember. Not only about the movies, but the other things too, like the basketball matches, Sassy's choice about… whatever he was doing at the moment, even my grades. No matter how weird it was, the outcome was hilarious. My parents are the best.

* * *

A knock from the door echoes through the room, but the boy sitting at the table wearing headphones and listening to music doesn't hear it; he is occupied with taking notes from the book on his table. A sudden hit in the ribs makes him produce a hiccup-like sound as his mother laughs at him from the doorpost. He takes his headphones off and carefully places them on the table.  
"Hi, mom. Dad isn't here if you're looking for him. Here's your dart." He says after picking the Nerf dart that hit him from the floor and handing it to his mother. She had her black hair tied in a ponytail and wore some shorts and a T-shirt. He guessed they were playing Nerf war again, since it was Saturday and she was holding the plastic weapon. "Thank you, sweetie, but we're not playing today.", "No!" the boy acts surprised and gets a scolding look from his mother. "Are you studying again?" Beth asks, looking at his notes. "Yeah, finals are around the corner.", "Damon, son, it's Saturday afternoon. You can at least leave that for tomorrow and go to Internet or play games.", "Wow, mom, how inspirational." Damon sarcastically says and sighs, turning to his table again. "Or you could play some b-ball with your dad and me.", "Damn, why now? Can't you wait a little longer?", "Sorry, no can do. Take it or leave it.", "I'm going to have to leave it.", "Well, however you want it, sweetie." Beth says and kisses his head. "Oh, and, you missed something here, the result is 173." She corrects his mistake and leaves Damon with his studies. He takes a deep breath and exhales, rubs his eyes; one red and one blue, and stretches his neck and back. He had to admit that he's been studying for too long, since lunch. It's true that he'd rather play basketball with his parents, especially now that competitions are about to start and his school needs to keeps the champion title. He leans in his chair and looks at the ceiling, thinking about priorities. The late spring breeze coming from the outside through the window ruffles the curtains and is refreshing his room, even just for a little bit. But aside the breeze, his parents' laughs and yells and the sound of a basketball hitting against the ground are reaching his ears. A slight smile appears on his lips, just because he hears them laughing and having fun. He always considered himself lucky because his parents were like that. They cook together, sit together, watch TV together, play games together and probably shower together. They're even immature together. Damon still remembers the time when he woke up, looked out the window and found them playing with water guns. Or that one time they were making a snowman. And had a snowball fight.  
"She shoots… she scores!" Beth yells as she scores her victory shot. "Uh-huh, that's right. You know what that means." She says to Sebastian with a smirk and approaches him. "Remind me.", "Tonight-", "No! Don't say it! For the love of God, do not say it!" Damon shouts, interrupting whatever his mom wants to say. Knowing them, it was probably something dirty or… yeah.  
"Tonight is your dad making pizza and massaging my feet… Jesus, what were you thinking Damon?", "We're living with a pervert, Chubby." Beth and Sebastian look at Damon and raise a brow. "Oh, I wonder who I got that from.", "Beats me." His parents say in unison before drinking water from the bottles. "How come you decided to join us?", "Well, it has been a long time since we… uh, hang out together.", "But we were playing games last night.", "On fresh air, dad.", "Apocalypse last Saturday?" Beth adds and drinks more water. "Anyway… I decided to come, okay?" Damon finally says and sighs; even though he loved his parents, there were times when they were impossible to handle with.  
"Play with the loser, I'll go make some sandwiches." Beth says and gives a sly smile to Sebastian before going inside. "No mercy from her." Sebastian says with a smile while watching Beth leaving. "Okay, let's do this." Damon nods at his dad's words and stands in a position for a one-on-one. Sebastian stands just two feet from him, ready to start. He looks younger than he really is; whenever they go to do the shopping together, there are still some women who turn their heads after him. Few strands of grey hair and wrinkles around his eyes don't stop them.  
A father and a son start their match with Sebastian taking the lead. His artificial leg doesn't slow him down in any view and he can be thankful to Beth for that. If she didn't force him to do sports and wasn't treating him as if there wasn't that thing, he'd be in pain now.  
"Aw, look at that. It's like you're playing with a mini you." Beth shouts to them from the garden table where she puts the fresh-made sandwiches. Which was mostly true; Damon picked his dad's hairstyle ever since he was a kid, genetics. The only thing that differed them now was age and height. Since Damon was still growing, he didn't reach his full height, but was as tall as his mom. But everyone was sure that he'll look like his dad when he grows up. "Who's in lead?", "Dad is." Damon says and tries to shoot a three-pointer, but his dad blocks him, takes the ball and shoots his three-pointer which goes in without touching the ring.  
"Ah, finally, now let's eat." Sebastian says and taps Damon on the shoulder as a sign they played a good game.

* * *

"Dad? What is mom doing up there?" Damon asked his father when he entered the kitchen to eat a snack and found him making tea and some sandwiches. "Is she moving something? Sounds like she's suffering." Sebastian snickered at his son's statement and shook his head; he found it adorable how his son's point of view was peculiar. "No. Unfortunately, your mother has a flu, got it this morning. If you hear some loud sneezes or any… strange sounds- it's her." He explained to his son and picked up a plate with food and pills. "Oh? Thank you for warning me. I guess." Damon said confusedly and walked to the fridge. His mom, who is pretty slim and has a gentle voice, makes such sounds? Hard to believe.

* * *

Saturday, around 1 a.m. Damon woke up with a horrible growling noise coming from his stomach, which craved for food. When he finally got down the stairs, his legs led him to the kitchen. Only, he didn't find it empty. There were, of course, his parents sitting, laughing and eating. It wouldn't be that strange at all if they didn't go to some business party.  
"Oh, hey. When did you come back?" he asked and rubbed his eyes, then joined them on the kitchen counter. "5 minutes ago. Did we wake you up?" His mom asked and fixed his hair; he sure did look like his father the more he aged. "No, I was hungry. And you? Didn't you just come back from the party? With food?", "Oh, but we did. Only the food was vegetarian." Damon stopped chewing the sandwich his mom made him to look at his parents. Then he started laughing. "Oh, my God, the irony!" he covered his mouth to stop food from flowing out and laughed. Soon his parents joined him. Talking about Michelis family.

_**THE END**_

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Dear readers, if you read your way here- congrats. Thank you for putting up with me :)

Here's a little fact about this story: it was supposed to be a one-shot with Sebastian fucking his student in the middle of their instructions, but it turned into this. I still wonder how, though.

However, this final chapter is made of one-shots, which are not connected, just following some events I made up while writing the story.

It was nice (sometimes stressful) writing this, considering there were times when I had no clue what to write about.

Pardon my grammar and grammar mistakes- English isn't my first language.

I feel like I'm gonna cry.


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